Last updated on January 15th, 2023 at 04:44 pm
As one of the most user-friendly website-building platforms, WordPress is a popular choice for bloggers and business owners looking to build an online presence for their brand.
However, before you embark on your website design journey, you’ll need to go through the process of selecting the best WordPress hosting provider.
Sounds easy peasy, right?
Well, it’s not exactly the most challenging task in the world, except that there’s a pool of over 330,000 web hosting providers to choose from.
Luckily for you, we’ve done the tough job of identifying the very best among the lot.
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Best WordPress Hosts
1. Kinsta
Why We Like It
- Excellent uptime
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Free SSL
- Free migration
- Hack and malware removal
Founded in 2013, Kinsta is one of the newest kids on the block. Nonetheless, it has risen to become a serious contender among the best web hosting platforms for WordPress. And it’s quite easy to see why.
To start with, Kinsta features a special high-performance content delivery network called KeyCDN.
It is also one of the first WordPress web hosts to be powered exclusively by the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). As a result, Kinsta can deliver unbelievable numbers in terms of site speed, security, and performance to its customers across the globe.
Kinsta gives you access to 29 data centers across four continents, including North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and South America. Additionally, as a customer, you’re allowed to specifically choose a different data center for each of your WordPress sites.
Lastly, this platform offers expert customer support, a custom-built user-friendly dashboard known as MyKinsta, and up to six downloadable backup options.
2. WP Engine
Why We Like It
- Professional customer support
- 60-day money-back guarantee
- Free data backup and restore
- Automatic WordPress update
- Managed WordPress and WooCommerce hosting
Trusted by over one million webmasters across 150 countries, WP Engine is a reliable and efficient web hosting solution for newbies and experienced users.
It’s designed exclusively to serve WordPress users, so you can be rest assured that you’ll get the best tailor-made hosting services.
However, where WP Engine pulls its weight is the simple interface that is incredibly easy to use.
WP Engine also offers extra perks such as automated site migration, regular backups, excellent uptime, premium protection against threats, and other sophisticated tools.
With a starting price of $24 monthly, you can argue that WP Engine is not the most affordable WordPress hosting platform around, but the stress-free services it provides would make you feel like you got a bargain.
3. Cloudways DigitalOcean
Why We Like It
- Expert customer support
- Extended security
- Top-level customer support
- User-friendly interface
- Incredible speed and performance
Cloudways is a managed hosting platform that helps you access and manage up to five existing cloud hosting infrastructures, including DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, Amazon Web Service (AWS), and Google Cloud.
But with a starting price of $10 per month, the combination between Cloudways and DigitalOcean is the most affordable hosting solution among the options mentioned above. Plus, you also get to enjoy the best of both worlds: DigitalOcean’s high-performance tools and Cloudways’ user-friendly interface.
In comparison, pairing Cloudways with Google Cloud will set you back by at least $34.17 every month. That’s not far off from the $36.04 monthly price of combining Cloudways with Amazon Web Services. Meanwhile, pairing Cloudways with Vultr or Linode will cost you $11 or $12, respectively.
DigitalOceans offers top-class perks such as caching technology, SSD storage, pre-configured firewalls, and 99.99% uptime. However, you’ll need considerable technical knowledge to utilize these tools, and customer support is said to be lacking.
Cloudways solves both problems by offering premium round-the-clock support and a simple interface so that users with little or no technical background can fully harness those features.
Another upside of this pairing is the number of accessible data centers and watertight SSL security provided on both ends.
4. Flywheel
Why We Like It
- Free SSL certificates
- Automatic backup
- Managed plugins updates
- Web application firewall against DDoS and other threats
- 60-day money-back guarantee
With a reported setup time of four minutes, Flywheel’s web hosting platform is available to individuals and agencies.
So far, more than 175,000 agencies and creative brands have entrusted their hosting needs to Flywheel because of agency and developer-oriented tools like Growth Suites, among several others.
Flywheel doesn’t offer email hosting, website building, and domain services, making it even more preferable. Basically, all the platform does is offer managed WordPress services only — no more, no less.
Some users would think that the absence of these side attractions is a disadvantage. But in reality, it’s a huge bonus, especially if you have some technical know-how to tackle issues around email hosting and domain services when they pop up.
Top-tier plans on Flywheel come with premium customer support, including a dedicated account manager and phone support from Monday to Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (CST). Users on the lower tier plans don’t enjoy the same luxury as they’re limited to live chats, email tickets, and 24/7 in-app support only.
But if you’re a DIY kind of person, Flywheel has a comprehensive list of over 100 articles explaining all its features and answering most of the Frequently asked questions that you might have. So chances are you may not need to call on the robust customer support.
Flywheel also adds the icing on the cake by offering one-click WordPress installations and a seamless staging environment.
5. SiteGround
Why We Like It
- Excellent customer service
- Free daily backup
- Managed WordPress hosting
- Impressive uptime
- Impeccable speed
SiteGround is a heavy favorite among web admins for many reasons. We can choose to highlight the outstanding tools, customer support, speed, and all-around optimized performance that it offers. However, SiteGround holds a significant advantage over the other competitors when it comes to reviews.
The company has a customer satisfaction score of 98%, one of the highest within the WordPress community. And for a startup that’s looking to increase its number of domains beyond the two million mark, you can imagine that every seal of approval received from existing customers will come in handy. In addition, the platform is one of the few hosting providers that WordPress officially endorses.
SiteGround offers location-specific hosting, allowing users to pick between six data centers across three continents.
There are also three hosting plans: StartUp, GrowBig, and GoGeek.
Monthly rates start at $14.99 and top out at $39.99. But, regardless of the plan you buy, you’ll get free Let’s Encrypt SSL, free Cloudflare CDN, timely backups, and premium customer support (including live texts, email tickets, and phone calls) as standard options. On top of that, SiteGround is currently offering a 73% discount on all its subscription plans.
6. WPX Hosting
Why We Like It
- Reliable customer support
- Competitive pricing
- Simple interface
- Superfast speed
- DDoS protection
When we talk of performance-oriented and scalable web hosts, you’ll struggle to find any web hosting platform that’s better than WPX Hosting.
According to Pingdom and GTMetrix, WPX Hosting trumps all other platforms in page loading speed.
Aside from this, the platform boasts of a 30-second customer support response time and an excellent Trust Pilot rating.
Other freebies offered by WPX Hosting include zero-cost site speed optimization sessions with experts, free SSL certificates, free unlimited site transfer, free malware detection, and removal, as well a free high-speed custom CDN network that spans across 26 endpoints.
7. DreamHost
Why We Like It
- 97-day-money-back-guarantee
- Free SSL certificate
- Unlimited bandwidth and storage
- Multiple hosting types (including shared, WordPress, cloud, and VPS)
- DDoS protection
Adopted by over 1.5 million website owners, DreamHost is another web hosting provider that WordPress officially recommends. And rightly so because the platform hosts up to 750,000 WordPress domains.
With DreamHost, you will access powerful tools and valuable features like daily automated backups, high-tech, easy-to-use dashboard, auto WordPress updates, free SSL, free email hosting, free SSDs, and even a free domain (can you believe that?).
In-house experts offer customer support in addition to the self-help blog posts and tutorials that have been made available by the company.
DreamHost’s unbeatable pricing is another factor that makes it a top choice among web admins.
Why You Shouldn’t Use Bluehost or Any EIG Subsidiary
Over the years, Bluehost has been heralded as one of the best web hosts around, and even WordPress officially endorses it.
But for what it’s worth, these high recommendations might not accurately represent the quality of service that’s obtainable on the platform.
Complaints from different corners have seen Bluehost’s Trustpilot rating drop to average. However, this bad review is not limited to Bluehost alone; other web hosting brands under the Endurance International Group (EIG), including HostGator and Web.com, suffer the same fate.
EIG is one of the most prominent investors in the industry, with over 80 web hosting platforms and around 4.9 million domains under its umbrella.
The conglomerate has been accused of squeezing too many websites into one server on several occasions, which often leads to a dilemma for webmasters and their sites.
The majority of the criticisms are centered around recurring technical issues. Customers also report that their complaints are usually met by a carefree attitude from nonchalant customer service agents.
Conclusion
Not too many people prioritize it, but choosing the right web host is one process that could make or break your website. We’ve compiled a well-researched list of the top-of-the-range hosting platforms based on some high-standard criteria.
So whether you’re looking to change your current web host or just starting with your first website, you’re sure to find the right hosting provider amongst the premium options we’ve highlighted in this article.
Your final pick will often be based on personal preferences such as pricing, migration policy, and backup options. But whichever choice you end up with, you can be rest assured your website will get the best possible WordPress hosting service.