Choosing the right WordPress hosting service for your website can be tough, but it’s important to get right. The quality of your web host can impact your website’s SEO, user experience, and sales. Fortunately, there are many hosting companies out there today that provide excellent services. But with so many services to choose from, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. In this post, I’ve narrowed down the best WordPress hosting services to three options, each of which is ideal for small-to-medium-sized businesses.
Before we dive into this post, you may be wondering: Who are you and why should I listen to you? In case you’re new around here, I’m Steph, a strategic brand and web designer who’s been building WordPress websites for small businesses for about four years. I’ve worked with numerous different hosting platforms and have done a lot of research over the years to determine which ones are the best.
It’s in my best interest to recommend the most reliable hosting services to my clients, many of whom are creating a website for the first time when working with me. I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly–and since I get a ton of questions about hosting, I decided to put together this post to share my top three picks.
With that said, let’s explore my top three recommended web hosts. Here’s how I’m breaking them down:
The 4 different types of hosting
In addition to having lots of different hosting companies to choose from, there are also several different types of website hosting. If you’ve been researching hosting options for a while, you’ve probably seen some of these terms thrown around. To help simplify things, here’s a breakdown of the different hosting types:
- Shared hosting: This is the cheapest type of hosting available and is intended for small, low-resource websites since you’re sharing a server with thousands of other websites.
- VPS hosting: A more reliable and secure alternative to shared hosting, VPS hosting means sharing an environment with under 20 other websites.
- Dedicated hosting: Like the name implies, dedicated hosting means you have full ownership of the server your website runs on. This is generally not a good solution for small businesses because the cost and effort of managing your own server typically isn’t worth it.
- Managed hosting: Companies that offer managed hosting offer either shared or VPS hosting; the difference is that they also maintain the hosting service and offer built-in features specific to your website platform, in this case WordPress.
So, which type of hosting should you choose? For most small-to-medium-sized businesses, I recommend managed WordPress hosting. In general, this type of service is relatively easy to use, offers good customer support, and is reasonably priced. If you’re just starting out and on a tight budget, shared hosting is likely your best bet.
Next up, we’ll take a look at the three WordPress hosting companies I recommend: Bluehost, WPEngine, and Siteground.
Best budget WordPress hosting: Bluehost
If you’re looking for a solid and reliable web host on a budget, consider Bluehost. They are one of the oldest and consistently top-rated website hosting services for WordPress. Bluehost performs well on all of the factors that are important for a web host, such as speed, 24/7 customer service, reliability, and performance. And with their competitive pricing to boot, Bluehost is a good option for any small to medium business owner who’s just starting out.
Bluehost pros
- Beginner friendly: includes 1-click WordPress installation and a free page builder
- Affordable pricing with multiple options to suit your needs and budget
- Great built-in security
- 24/7 customer service
- Free domain for one year
Bluehost cons
- Difficult to migrate from another host
- No monthly shared hosting plans
Summary
Bluehost offers shared, dedicated, and VPS hosting plans. Their most basic, shared hosting plan for WordPress currently starts at just $2.95/month. If you’re looking for a budget option, this price point can’t be beaten. Whichever type of plan you choose, you’re likely to get a good bang for your buck in terms of value.
Best premium WordPress hosting: WPEngine
If you’re set on purchasing a managed WordPress hosting plan and are willing to pay for a premium service, consider WPEngine. This web host, which is built exclusively for WordPress, is a favorite among business owners and developers alike. It’s fast, secure, user-friendly, and comes with every feature you could ever need to manage your site (and possibly some you don’t.) I recently worked with a WPEngine client to completely redesign their website and was very impressed with how easy it was to create and deploy a staging site.
WPEngine pros
- Daily backups
- Great speed and performance
- Built-in security
- 24/7 customer service
- Advanced features for easy staging, production, and migration
WPEngine cons
- Expensive
Summary
All-in-all, the only real con to WPEngine is their pricing, which starts at $25/month for a single website on a managed plan. If pricing isn’t a major concern when it comes to web hosting, then WPEngine is an excellent option.
Related post: 9 best WordPress plugins for small businesses
Best all-around WordPress hosting: Siteground
Last but certainly not least, the third WordPress host I recommend is Siteground. This is the host I use for my own website and recommend to most of my clients. Siteground manages to strike a wonderful balance between affordability and quality, which generally makes it an ideal option for small-to-medium-sized businesses. Like Bluehost, Siteground is one of the few hosting services that’s officially recommended by the creators of WordPress.
Siteground pros
- Built-in speed and performance optimization
- 24/7 customer support
- Servers in multiple geographic locations
- Daily backups
- Easy migration with free migrator plugin
Siteground cons
- Pricing increases significantly after the first year
- No free domain
Summary
I’ve been with Siteground for about 3 years (after switching from Dreamhost) and have had a positive enough experience to stay and continue recommending them to my clients. Although pricier than Bluehost, Siteground offers better support, speed, and performance. With multiple plans to choose from, Siteground is a great option for your website, whether you’re just starting out or looking to upgrade to a more premium hosting service.
Related post: WordPress vs. Wix: Which is better for your small business?
Next steps
Now that you’ve learned about some of the best hosting options available for your WordPress site, you’re ready to move on to the next step: actually building your site! For additional resources and support, check out the following:
- Discover my favorite theme for building WordPress websites.
- Purchase a WordPress website template to build your beautiful, functional site in as little as a day.
- Check out my services to discover how we can work together to build a strategic site for your business.
This page contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of these links I may receive a small commission. I only affiliate with services and products I’ve personally used and genuinely recommend.
