WordPress Hosting: The Best Option and Much More!

Thinking about the best WordPress hosting for your needs? Our free guide is designed to answer your questions and explain your next steps.

We’ll look at different types of WordPress hosting and weigh up your options, including WP Engine, SiteGround, GoDaddy and Bluehost.

Read on!

What is WordPress Hosting?

WordPress is, of course, a very popular website and publishing platform. With WordPress, you can build, publish and update your website/blog.

There are two forms of WordPress: WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

WordPress.com provides its hosting, free for everyone but restricts plugins from working. Plugins can be essential to customising your website, so you may want to use WordPress.org.

However, with WordPress.org, you’ll need to find your hosting from web hosting sites such as Bluehost, GoDaddy, etc. 

So, what are the main types of WordPress hosting? There are four types: managed hosting, shared hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated hosting.

Each one has different advantages and disadvantages.

Dedicated WordPress Hosting

Many hosts offer dedicated hosting for WordPress. However, dedicated hosting demands a greater knowledge of hardware and operating systems.

With dedicated hosting, you’ll need to set up other elements, such as a web server, and operate it yourself.

There are great features, though: one of the main benefits involves the ability to set up your hosting to your exact needs. So, this means much more control over considerations like security.

Shared WordPress Hosting

You’ve probably already heard of shared hosting. It’s the type of hosting that almost every hosting company offers, and it is one of the cheapest types of hosting available.

Why is it cheap? Because many users with multiple websites are on one server. This, however, leads to potential overcrowding at times.

This could potentially lead to your website slowing down. 

The great thing about shared hosting? The price! It is cheap and ideal for starting up with hosting and learning about hosting.

Companies like GoDaddy and Bluehost are huge in the WordPress hosting market, offering shared hosting plans. All offer decent performance, good security measures and support too.

VPS WordPress Hosting

VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting, also known as cloud hosting, is another alternative to WordPress hosting. VPS hosting works similarly to shared hosting, except with fewer people on a server.

With this lower number of people sharing, the risk of security issues is lowered.

The VPS helps secure your hosting by using technology to separate and protect your sites from potential issues with other people using hosting on the same server as yours.

VPS hosting ranges in pricing from low budget to costly options. Choosing the right plan with VPS hosting is essential as you may need more bandwidth than you initially expected.

Managed WordPress Hosting

Managed WordPress Hosting is one of the most popular WordPress hosting types. The whole hosting environment is set up to support WordPress and to help increase speed, security and reliability.

The price for managed hosting can become very expensive, depending on the resources you need to host your websites. 

Many managed hosting plans have restrictions to help make your sites more secure. This means some plugins will not work with managed plans. 

Companies such as WP Engine and Flywheel, which deal solely with managed WordPress hosting, are experienced providers.

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The Best WordPress Hosting Option?

Regarding WordPress hosting, finding the best for your needs can be difficult.

There are many companies to choose from, and each may be better at some things than others. For example, some companies are better at providing security features, and others provide better performance for your sites.

You also need to figure out which type of hosting would better suit you. Would be managed to host suit best? Dedicated, VPS or shared hosting? 

Comparison sites explain the main features of different hosts; the main features such as uptime, storage, support and performance are usually shown.

WordPress Hosting Costs

Usually, shared WordPress is the cheapest option.

The next opinion, budget-wise, will usually be VPS hosting, commonly known as cloud hosting. 

Managed plans, the next option in terms of expense, may be needed depending on your requirements for storage, visits per month and performance.

The final type of hosting – dedicated hosting – will tend to be the most expensive.

WordPress Hosting plans

Generally, when it comes to WordPress Hosting plans, you do get what you pay for. A cheaper plan may not be the best idea if you need certain features.

Along with the cost of the plans, the storage available and the number of visitors will change with the cost along with the features on offer.

Many companies also guarantee an uptime of 99.9%. This is a great incentive in a competitive market, especially where monthly refunds are given to customers who do not receive the promised service.

Companies who offer this guarantee include GoDaddy, HostGator and DigiatalOcean.

One of the main features of managed plans? The number of monthly visits allowed. Most of the time, if you go over the number of monthly visits, your site will not be able to be accessed until the start of the next month. Some providers are an exception to this rule and allow you to go over your limit, but they will talk about upgrading your plan to one more suitable for your needs.

Cheap WordPress Hosting

As we’ve explained, the cheapest WordPress hosting will tend to be shared hosting.

Some companies, such as 1&1, have even offered £1 hosting. Of course, you get what you pay for, and the storage and RAM are small. These small allowances for storage and RAM mean hosting a website with much content would be almost impossible. 

At the time of writing: 1&1 Hosting is one of the cheapest hosting services in the UK, with its cheapest plan being 99p, just under a pound. iPage is the most reliable and cheapest host in the US. The cheapest plan they offer is $1.99 a month. This same plan is offered at £1.50 a month in the UK and is still cheap in Europe and Ireland at 2.99 euros.

Fastest WordPress Hosting?

Why is speed important? Loading times can make your website suffer, as users could ditch a page due to a slow experience.

Realistically a website will need to have an upload speed of less than a second to keep traffic on-site for as long as possible.

Secure WordPress Hosting

Many hosts allow users to add additional security features at an additional cost. Some hosts even give you these security features as part of your plan.

Most hosts offer a free SSL (Secure Socket Layer). Flywheel and WP Engine are just two examples of hosts that do so.

SSL means all data entered within a page becomes encrypted. This is essential where personal information will be entered, such as e-commerce sites.

Features such as SiteLock, CodeGuard and ModSecurity, which protect your sites from spam, malware and hackers, will likely be a cost in addition to your hosting. 

To stop spam to your emails and own phone number, you may want to consider domain privacy,

Free WordPress Hosting

Many websites offer free WordPress hosting but service-wise, you run the risk of ‘getting what you paid for’.

Is one company worth considering for free hosting? WordPress themselves! More specifically, WordPress.com. WordPress.com is similar to wordpress.org, except you can host your website for free, although adverts will appear on your site.

Other hosts who provide free hosting are Hostinger, also known as 000webhost, freehostingnoads and freehostia. 

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WordPress Site Migration

Without site migration, you would be left stuck to one web host. Most hosting companies offer some sort of site migration, which may be a plugin or manual option. Some companies may charge a customer to bring a site to their service.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the options for your next website:

GoDaddy WordPress Hosting

GoDaddy is one of the most popular web-based companies in the World. They boast over 17 million customers worldwide, offering web hosting (including WordPress) and domain registration services.

GoDaddy offer shared hosting, VPS hosting and managed hosting. 

Once you’ve signed up to GoDaddy, you can use their site migration tool to move your site from your previous host.

The price GoDaddy offer is competitive as they have four packages for WordPress.

Find Out More About GoDaddy

Bluehost WordPress Hosting

Bluehost is a hosting company offering multiple plans for many different types of hosting. 

With Bluehost optimised plans, the company offers generous limits on the number of visits a month, storage and backup. You’ll also receive a free SSL, 24/7 support and cPanel. You can also add an SEO tool.

Bluehost is one of only three hosting companies to be recommended by WordPress.

Find Out More About Bluehost 

SiteGround WordPress Hosting

SiteGround is another well-known hosting company. They offer dedicated, cloud, shared and WordPress hosting. SiteGround has three plans for WordPress, starting at a reasonable price.

They offer a great support network featuring a setup wizard and hundreds of articles.

SiteGround also offers free site migration.

Find Out More About SiteGround 

HostGator WordPress Hosting

HostGator offers three plans for WordPress Hosting: a starter, a standard and a business plan.

With every WordPress plan, you get free SiteLock and backup.

Every plan offers a good amount of traffic to your sites, a decent backup, and an uptime of 99.9% guaranteed. 

Find Out More About HostGator 

iPage WordPress Hosting

For WordPress iPage, they offer the WP Starter and the WP Essential plan.

The WP Starter includes unlimited storage and bandwidth. Pre-installed themes and plugins are also installed in the plan and are built into the custom control panel.

The essential plan includes everything within the starter plan, plus SiteLock and malware removal. iPage also offers expert support.

Find Out More About iPage 

DreamHost WordPress Hosting

Dreamhost is another one of the three hosting companies recommended by WordPress. They offer many types of hosting, including dedicated, cloud, shared and managed hosting. Altogether there are six plans for WordPress, three for shared WordPress and three for managed WordPress. 

With DreamHost, you’ll receive Jetpack Pro with the two more expensive managed plans. This feature improves SEO and security performance.

Find Out More About Dreamhost

InMotion WordPress Hosting

InMotion offers VPS, dedicated reseller, business and WordPress hosting. For WordPress, they offer six plans.

With every plan, you have access to an unlimited amount of emails and bandwidth. The storage starts from 40GB in the first plan to 240GB in the sixth. As with every better plan, the storage goes up by 4oGB.

InMotion offers many features with every one of their plans. Free backups and a page builder are included with every package, and 24/7 support.

Find Out More About InMotion 

NameCheap WordPress Hosting

NameCheap provides a range of hosting, including shared hosting, dedicated hosting and many others, including WordPress hosting.

NameCheap advertises you can set up and manage their WordPress within 30 seconds. This is because you don’t need to set up WordPress manually yourself. 

Find Out More About NameCheap 

One and One (1&1) WordPress Hosting

1&1 web hosting is one of the most popular hosting sites in the UK. Their website comes in many different languages, such as English, Italian, Spanish and US English. For WordPress, they offer three managed plans.

Expert support and 24/7 support are offered within each of the plans 1&1 offer, meaning you’re never far from help. Unlike many other competitors, you can allow as many visitors as you like to access your sites, as many email accounts as you need and an unlimited amount of websites with the unlimited plan.

Great performance and security features are included within each package, including a free SSL, SiteLock and data recovery.

Find Out More About 1 and 1

Site5 WordPress Hosting

Site5 is a web hosting company based in the US. They offer web hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting and WordPress hosting. WordPress offers three plans, the hostBasic, hostPro and the hostPro+ Turbo. Customers receive unmetered storage and bandwidth with each plan. The most basic plan is the only one with access to only one website, unlike the other two, which offer unlimited numbers of websites.

Find Out More About Site5 

123 Reg WordPress Hosting

123 Reg are one of the largest, if not the biggest, domain provider within the UK. Since 2000, they have registered over three million domains and hosted over one million sites. Web hosting, WordPress, Joomla and Drupal application hosting are all offered by 123 Reg.

For WordPress, 123 Reg offers the business and the premium plan. 

With both plans, you’ll have access to MySQL, a database size of 1GB, 100GB of storage and multiple websites. In the smaller business plan, you get free access to two domains and only one with the Premium plan.

Find Out More About 123Reg

A2 WordPress Hosting

A2 offers many different hosting options, including shared, VPS, reseller, cloud, dedicated and WordPress hosting. 

With every plan, customers will gain access to unlimited storage and transfer, cPanel access (except in the managed plan) and a money-back guarantee. The money-back guarantee is unique to A2 as they offer an ‘anytime money-back guarantee’. A turbo server is offered for some plans, allowing your sites to run more quickly. 

A2 offers free site migration, good support, and security features, including a free SSL with every WordPress plan. 

Find Out More About A2

WordPress Engine (WP Engine) Hosting

WordPress Engine offers great support and security for all of its users, including support 365 days a year and a solution centre to find answers to your questions.

Free site migration/transfer is offered with WP Engine, just like many other competitors.

One of the biggest benefits of WP Engine is the billing transfer feature. This allows web designers to build websites first, and then their clients can pay for the site after it is complete and the site is ready to be published.

Find Out More About WP Engine.  

Liquid Web WordPress Hosting

With over 30,000 customers in 130 and five data centres worldwide, Liquid Wed takes pride in giving its customers the best hosting experience possible. 

Liquid Web also offers unique features, including a worry-free auto plugin update feature and image optimisation to improve page loading speeds.

Find Out More About LiquidWeb

ProfileTree WordPress Hosting

ProfileTree also offers WordPress hosting with a range of options and costs to suit your individual needs:

Find out more here: ProfileTree WordPress Hosting.

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FAQ

1. What factors should I prioritize when choosing WordPress hosting?

Performance, security, and scalability are crucial. Consider server speed, uptime, security features like firewalls and backups, and the plan’s ability to handle your website’s growth.

2. What type of WordPress hosting is right for me?

Shared hosting is affordable for basic websites, while managed hosting offers expert support and automatic updates. VPS hosting scales for growing websites, and dedicated hosting offers maximum control and power for high-traffic sites.

3. Which popular WordPress hosting providers should I consider?

Bluehost, SiteGround, DreamHost, Hostinger, and WP Engine are all renowned options. Compare features, pricing, and customer reviews in our table to find the best fit.

4. What about specific website needs like e-commerce or membership features?

We discuss additional considerations for online stores, membership websites, and multilingual sites in the article. Ensure your chosen hosting supports your specific needs.

5. Where can I find more information and resources?

We offer additional articles, guides, and tutorials on WordPress hosting throughout our website. Feel free to explore and contact us if you have further questions.

Conclusion

Choosing the right WordPress hosting is crucial for your website’s success. By understanding key factors, comparing popular providers, and considering your specific needs, you can make an informed decision. Use our comprehensive guide and resources to navigate the options and find the perfect hosting solution for your WordPress website. Remember, your hosting journey doesn’t end here.

As your website evolves, revisit your hosting needs and stay informed about industry trends to ensure your online presence thrives.

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