When you’re getting ready to start a blog on Wordpress, choosing a website hosting provider is one of the first steps. You know it’s important to choose a good one (that’s why you’re here). You don’t want to deal with bad customer service, pay too much, or have your site go down. I’m going to cover the four best Wordpress website hosting platforms out there.
The best Wordpress hosts:
I’ll start by saying, GoDaddy and BlueHost are popular website hosting providers — but they also get a LOT of complaints. I’m hearing weekly (if not daily) complaints about lack of customer service or a website going down on these two hosts.
For these reasons, I do not recommend them to people. There ARE lots of people who use either GoDaddy or BlueHost, and have nothing but great things to say about them. So, you could take a chance and use them. But, the ones listed below, I’ve never heard complaints about.
Features
The website hosting providers listed below in this post share many of the same features:
- 10GB (or so) of storage
- Server-level caching (a.k.a. — site speed is super fast)
- Malware monitoring
- Auto-back-ups, usually daily
- Free migrations from your previous host
Flywheel
Flywheel is my personal favorite. They have incredible customer service, and their user interface is very well designed and easy to use. I recommend them to all of my clients who use Wordpress.
What makes them different:
- $15-75/month
- Free demo sites
- Managed Wordpress updates
- No domain or emails (I recommend Hover!)
WP Engine
After Flywheel, I recommend WP Engine second. Customers are always saying how fast their site is when using WP Engine.
What makes them different:
- $29-249/month
- Includes domain, but not email
>> Get two months free on a shared annual plan!
LiquidWeb
LiquidWeb has several solutions for hosting, for businesses of all sizes. Because many entrepreneurs will likely just need the shared server hosting, the features below are for those plans. If you want your own server or any of the other solutions, check out their site for details!
What makes them different:
- $19.95-40/month (for shared servers)
- Domain included
- 24/7 support
SiteGround
Similar to LiquidWeb, SiteGround has varying levels of web hosting available. Again, I’ll just be listing the features of the shared hosting, as this is what most entrepreneurs will be needing.
Features:
- $6.95-14.95/month
- Domain and email included
- Website builder included
How to choose
There are even more website hosting companies out there than what I’ve listed here. These are the companies I recommend, but still — how do you choose the right for your business? Many of the hosts share very similar features, as I listed above. Here’s how I would decide:
- What’s the best bang for my buck? I don’t want the absolute cheapest solution, but I probably can’t afford the most expensive either.
- Each host allots different space and bandwidth for their users. What are the goals for my website? How much will I need — and is it easy to upgrade if need be?
- Some come with domains and emails, some don’t. Do I need these things? Would it be cheaper to get these things elsewhere?
- Even though I’m personally recommending these hosts, what are other trusted professionals and colleagues using?
*There are affiliate links in this post. But, I only share resources I truly recommend!
