As any seasoned web professional will tell you, finding the best WordPress web hosting service for your new site is all about finding a package that offers four essential features:
- Outstanding uptime of at least 99.95%
- Excellent performance
- Robust security
- Expert support for WordPress.
Yet, finding such a hosting provider that offers all of this along with: easy-to-manage backups, ample storage, bandwidth, and affordable pricing can often feel like trying to find a needle in the proverbial haystack.
On the face of it, that’s hardly surprising.
There’s a seemingly infinite number of web hosting companies out there, all of whom promise to offer everything you could need to run a successful WordPress website.
But which ones actually keep that promise?
More importantly, which hosting companies are worth signing up with?
If those are questions that have been on your mind as of late, this guide is for you.
Over the past few years, I’ve built a content website portfolio from $0 to $1.5 million. In doing so, I naturally tried out countless web hosting companies to find the best ones for my brands.
7 Best WordPress Web Hosting Services 2022
Below, I’ve rounded up the top 7 very best web hosting plans for WordPress users, outlining the pros, cons, pricing information, and everything you need to know to help you make a fully informed decision when choosing your next hosting package.
1. WPX Hosting
It's WPX's personal approach that first attracts many bloggers to their service, but it's the quality of that service and commitment to making high-level hosting accessible to beginners that convinces them to stay for the long-term.
WPX is a popular managed WordPress hosting provider that emphasizes speed and performance, proudly showing off their credentials after coming up top in independent speed tests.
However, while other platforms may boast about their performance to attract developers and large-scale enterprises, WPX pitches itself at the opposite end of the spectrum.
Since its formation in 2013, the company has carved out a niche for itself as the go-to hosting company of choice for bloggers, small-business owners, and small-scale website owners.
To that end, the company utilizes their own customer CDN and high-spec SSD services which they purposefully underload to ensure that no matter how popular any website gets at any given time, it isn’t going to affect the performance of your blog, portfolio, or other digital assets.
If you don’t know how to install WordPress but you’re convinced that you want to use it, that’s not a problem.
WPX’s commitment to serving non-technically-minded WordPress users is also reflected in their 1-click WordPress installations, meaning you can get up and running in no time.
Another reason why I love this brand is that they offer some of the best customer support of any hosting company I’ve come across so far, along with an extensive range of tutorials teaching you everything from how to start a blog to how to customize the CSS on your site.
Key Features
- DDoS protection
- Free malware removal
- LiteSpeed Server + LiteSpeed Cache + OpCache
- Unlimited site migrations
- Unlimited FTP accounts
- Easy-to-use file manager
- Unlimited MySQL and phpMyAdmin access
- 99.95% uptime guarantee
- Free site speed optimization tools.
Pricing
WPX’s pricing is roughly on a par with WPEngine though it actually offers better value for money.
The $24.99 per month Business Plan includes 10 GB of storage and 100 GB of monthly bandwidth for up to five websites.
Budding solopreneurs can upgrade and get either 20 GB of storage and 200 GB of monthly bandwidth for up to 15 websites at the cost of $49.99 with the Professional Plan, or 40 GB of storage and unlimited monthly bandwidth for up to 35 websites with the $99 per month Elite Plan.
All plans come with two months free when you pay yearly.
Overall when it comes to pricing, as a managed WordPress solution, it’s unbeatable.
Pros and Cons of WPX Hosting
Pros
- Guaranteed 30-second response time to support requests
- Includes unlimited SSL certificates
- Includes unlimited email inbox hosting.
Cons
- Automated backups are limited to every 28 days.
- A limited number of features.
- No telephone support.
How to Get Started?
- Head to WPX.net and select ‘View Offers.’
- Select your preferred plan (the $24.99 is my recommendation). The $24.99 per month ‘Business’ plan is my preferred option as it offers good value for money with enough storage, bandwidth, and other features for most growing businesses.
When you’ve chosen your plan, hit ‘Buy Now.’ - Enter your domain name.
If you’ve already purchased a domain name elsewhere, you can simply add it here. Otherwise, you can choose the ‘I Am Launching a new Website’ option and register a new domain with WPX. - Select your preferred hosting location closest to your intended audience.
Your options include the USA (Chicago), UK (London), and Australia (Sydney). So, if you were targeting customers in the USA, for example, you’d opt for Chicago, whereas somebody in France or Germany would be likely to choose London. - Enter contact and billing information.
After choosing your server location, all you’ll need to do is set up your account by adding contact and billing information. From there, you simply need to agree to the terms, hit submit, and start using your WPX hosting.
2. Cloudways
One of the most frustrating things about finding hosting is finding a package that's small enough to start with yet still gives you room to grow. Cloudways flexible plans solve that problem, making it a great choice for bloggers who are in it for the long-haul.
Cloudways are one of the very few WordPress web hosting companies I’ve encountered that actually offer a free trial of their service so that you can give the whole thing a test drive before making a purchasing decision.
If you do decide to sign up, you’ll be hosting your WordPress site on a secure and scalable cloud platform which typically offers better speed and reliability than physical shared web hosting servers.
Cloudways is another service that proves popular with web developers thanks to their advanced features for deploying PHP applications, a dedicated staging environment, and SSH and SFTP access. That’s not to mention the ability to scale your hosting on the fly to accommodate surges in traffic.
Key Features
- SSD hosting
- Built-in cache mechanism based on Varnish, Memcached, and Redis to improve site performance
- Custom-built CloudwaysCDN
- 24/7/365 support
- Dedicated firewalls
- Regular automated security patching
- HTTP/2 enabled servers.
Pricing
Cloudway offers flexible, pay-as-you-go plans, which range from $12 per month for 1GB of RAM, 25GB of storage space, 1 Core processor, and an impressive 25GB of bandwidth, up to $96 per month for 7GB of RAM, 4 Core processors, 160 GB of storage and 5TB of bandwidth.
All plans come with a free SSL and support unlimited websites, so you never have to worry about switching hosts or plans if you decide to start a new venture.
Pros and Cons Of Cloudways
Pros
- Simple, pay-as-you-go plans at fixed prices, so you never have to worry about paying more when your first term ends.
- Choice of cloud servers
- Excellent security features
Cons
- It doesn't offer domain names
- Not very beginner-friendly
- It doesn't offer email hosting
How to Get Started?
- Head to Cloudways.com and click ‘Get Started Free.’
- Enter contact and account information, along with answering questions about how you plan to use your hosting.
- Take advantage of the three-day free trial.
- When the trial ends, choose which plan you want, pay for it, and keep using the hosting account you created in the trial.
3. Kinsta
One of the few companies that really get it right when it comes to combining enterprise-level features and performance with a keep-it-simple approach, it's no wonder Kinsta enjoy a reputation as one of the top premium hosts on the web.
Kinsta is a premium managed WordPress hosting solution aimed at growing businesses and enterprise-level organizations.
They may not be the ideal choice for newcomers or your average small businesses, but those with loftier aspirations or large-scale projects to manage will find a lot to like here.
Major brands like Tripadvisor, Flippa, and Workforce all use Kinsta as their preferred hosting platform. It’s because Kinsta offers industry-leading CPUs, and backed by Google C2 machines, it gives global availability. Plus, there is an in-built performance monitoring and a world-class Global Content Delivery Network supported by 28 international data centers.
The provider is also highly praised for its excellent customer support, top-notch performance, and unbeatable reliability. Thus, making them an ideal choice for any company running a high-traffic website.
Key Features
- DDoS detection
- 24/7 uptime monitoring occurring every 2 minutes
- Hardware firewalls
- Free daily backups
- Optional additional backups every six hours or 1 hour charged at an extra cost
- 24/7 support
- Staging environment
Pricing
The one major drawback to Kinsta is that they’re pretty expensive.
The company’s starter plan costs $30 per month, which offers 10 GB of disk space for a single WordPress installation, while their highest-priced Business package costs $300 per month for 20 installations and 50 GB of disk space.
In between, options priced at $60, $100, and $200 will need you more space, bandwidth, and installations depending on your requirements.
The good news is that while these are pretty pricey, each plan does come with a free SSL, CDN, and staging environment, and if you’re not happy, there’s always a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Pros and Cons of Kinsta
Pros
- Offers unlimited free site migrations
- Powered by Google Cloud Platform to ensure secure, speedy data transfer
- Free hack fix - Kinsta's engineers will fix your website immediately if it is hacked, all at no cost to you.
Cons
- Expensive pricing
- It doesn't offer email hosting, which means you'll have to pay more for it from a third-party
- No telephone support.
How to Get Started?
- Head to Kinsta.com and select ‘View Plans’
- Select your preferred plan
- Create an account
- Enter your payment information
- Hit ‘Finish Up,’ and you’re good to go.
4. WPEngine
Speed matters when it comes to growing a successful site. As WordPress experts, WPEngine understand this more than most, which is why they pack their all into delivering the most turbo-charged hosting around.
As the name implies, WPEngine is one of the few companies out there set up to deal exclusively with WordPress websites, which means they offer the kind of expertise and technical resources, perfectly suited to running your new WP site.
Based in Austin, Texas, the 11-year-old company aim to set itself apart from the crowd by focussing on two key things:
- Unbeatable performance
- Advanced features for developers and more experienced WordPress users.
Regarding the former, the company proudly boasts that theirs is the fastest WordPress hosting on the market. The split-second loading speeds certainly vouch for this. At the same time, the impeccable uptime, WordPress-optimized caching, and globally-located data centers ensure your site always performs its best when your users need it the most.
In terms of the latter, the multi-environment setup, which allows for production, staging, and development versions of your site, often makes this an optimum choice for WordPress professionals.
Key Features
- Managed WordPress as standard includes automated updates
- Free daily backups
- Round-the-clock monitoring of code, themes, and plugins
- 24/7/365 technical support
- WooCommerce optimized
- Dedicated servers & server clusters
- Free Cloudflare CDN
- Free SSL
- One-click staging sites
- GIT and SFTP access.
Pricing
WPEngine may have a lot to offer, but all that high-level performance and all those developer-friendly tools don’t come cheap.
The company’s basic Managed WordPress plan starts at $25 per month, billed annually at $300 per year. While the good news is that it doesn’t get any more expensive than that after the first term, the bad news is that it’s still a hefty amount to pay upfront.
For that price, you get 10 GB of storage and 50 GB for one website, though if you need more than that, you can opt for either the $49 per month Professional plan (3 sites/15 GB storage/125 GB bandwidth per month), the $96 Growth plan (10 sites/20 GB storage/200 GB bandwidth per month), or the $242 per month Scale plan (30+ sites/50 GB storage/500 GB bandwidth per month).
Elsewhere, the company’s WooCommerce hosting solutions range from $30 to $292 per month.
It’s also worth mentioning that WPEngine doesn’t offer domains, so whichever plan you choose, you’ll have to pick one of the best domain registrars and get your web address from them.
Pros and Cons of WPEngine
Pros
- Includes access to 10+ premium WordPress themes (valued at $1,200+)
- Includes free automated WordPress migration tool
- Offers tools to make it easy for WordPress developers to hand off sites to clients.
Cons
- No telephone support
- No email inbox hosting is available
- A number of popular plugins such as WP Super Cache, SEO Auto Links & Related Posts, and more are banned by WPEngine.
How to Get Started?
- Head to WPEngine.com and select “View Plans and Pricing”
- Use the sliding scale to select the plan size you need
- Choose whether to pay annually or monthly (paying annually saves you $60 with two months free)
- Choose whether to buy optional upgrades such as Smart PLugin manager, Genesis Pro, and Global Edge Security
- Add in account information
- Enter payment details and confirm to be able to use your new plan.
5. Siteground
Read any number of reviews of any number of hosting companies, and you'll see that the majority of complaints are about their customer support. With SiteGround, it's the opposite. The company excel in getting you the help you need, when you need it.
Compared to some of their competitors, Siteground is a relative newcomer to the WordPress hosting space, having only been around since 2014.
However, since that time, the brand has quickly established an enviable reputation as industry frontrunners thanks to their affordable plans and highly-praised customer service.
The latter point makes them a particularly good fit for newcomers or those who want the convenience and control of taking charge of their own website yet who might not have the level of technical expertise needed to troubleshoot common problems.
For WordPress users, the company offers three specific types of plans:
- Basic shared hosting
- Managed WordPress
- WooCommerce hosting
If you’re planning to run your own online store, the latter might be particularly appealing as it comes with servers that are specifically optimized for online retail, including the addition of smart caching designed just for WooCommerce.
That said, both the WooCommerce and managed WordPress plans offer more or less the same key features. This includes access to multiple enhanced security tools such as spam protection, anti-hack systems, and proactive security patches, meaning security is one area where the company actually triumphs over Bluehost.
Key Features
- Pre-Installed WordPress
- Free WordPress migration tool
- Free SSL
- Free Cloudflare CDN
- Free email
- WP-CLI and SSH
- Out-of-the-box caching
- HTTP/2 enabled servers
- Free shopping cart installation
Pricing
Both the managed WordPress and managed WooCommerce plans start at $3.99 per month. Though both this first-term fee and the regular $14.99 per month renewal rate are higher than many, it may well be worth the extra cost to get a hold of the advanced security and protection features alone.
Each plan includes all of the key features listed above, with 10 GB of server space to support one website.
For multi-site operators, the StartUp plan offers 20 GB of storage for unlimited websites and costs $6.69 for the first 12 months and $24.99 after that.
If that’s still not enough, you can pay $10.69 per month for a year’s GoGeek plan (renewed at $39.99).
That said, since storage and bandwidth are the only real difference-makers between these three plans, the basic $3.99 should be more than enough for most regular users.
Pros and Cons of Siteground
Pros
- Offers a 99.9% uptime guarantee
- Superfast loading speeds of 750ms
- Includes free automated backups
Cons
- It doesn't include a free domain name.
- Higher-than-average cost.
- Limited server space may be a problem for some users.
How to Get Started?
- Head to Siteground.com and choose either WordPress or WooCommerce hosting.
- Select your plan (the $3.99 StartUp package should be sufficient).
- Register a new domain name (charged at $17.99) or enter an existing one.
- Enter contact and billing information.
- Decide whether you want to opt-in to extra services such as domain privacy ($12 per year) and SG Site Scanner ($36 per year).
- Agree to the terms, hit Pay Now, and start using your hosting package.
6. Bluehost
No list of the best WordPress hosting services would be worth anything if Bluehost weren't featured somewhere. Industry veterans, the company have been powering millions of websites since 1996, making them one of the most trusted and well-established brands around.
If you’ve spent any amount of time researching the best WordPress web hosting services before landing on this guide, you’ll have undoubtedly come across the name Bluehost before.
For the longest time, the Utah-based provider was the only hosting company officially recommended and endorsed by WordPress.
Though they’ve since been joined in that elite list by DreamHost and SiteGround, the company remains one of the best choices for those starting out, as their plans are specifically optimized to help you set up, grow, and maintain a flourishing WordPress website.
Their affordable plans start at $2.95 per month and include a free domain name for one year, a simple, highly-intuitive user interface, and an impressive uptime guarantee of 99.98%.
That’s not to mention the handy resource protection capabilities which ensure that even if you’re sharing a server with other websites, your site’s performance won’t be affected.
Speaking of performance, another feather in Bluehost’s cap is their lightning-fast loading speeds, with page load times typically clocking in at under half a second.
These are just some of the reasons why the company is the preferred hosting platform of choice for over 2 million WordPress websites, but, of course, they aren’t the only reasons.
Along with all of the above, Bluehost’s WordPress hosting also comes with the following:
Key Features
- 1-click WordPress installation
- Free SSL certificate
- Free Cloudflare Content Delivery Network (CDN)
- Drag-and-drop WordPress website builder
- 50GB SSD storage
- Access to 300+ free and premium WordPress themes
- 24/7 expert support via phone or live chat
- 1-to-1 live support to guide you through the process of setting up your WordPress site.
- Automated security updates
- Malware detection.
Pricing
Bluehost’s entry-level WordPress hosting plan starts at $2.95 per month for the first term of 12 months, after which it renews at $9.99 a month.
The plan includes everything listed above, with support for one website, one domain name, and five parked domains.
If you’re planning to run more than one website, other plans offer unlimited storage for an unlimited number of websites and come in at either $5.45 or $13.95 per month, depending on which plan you choose.
These packages also include invaluable additional features such as free automated backups, free domain privacy, and a free dedicated IP address in the case of the $13.95 plan.
Pros and Cons of Bluehost
Pros
- Use of Cloudflare CDN to prevent DDoS attacks and improve site performance
- Incredibly easy to use and beginner-friendly.
- Great support with fast response times and a high First Call Resolution rate.
Cons
- The most affordable plan doesn't include free back-ups
- Advanced security and protection features such as Sitelock and SpamExperts cost extra
- Higher-than-average renewal rates.
How to Get Started?
- Head to Bluehost.com and choose either the WordPress website builder or shared hosting option (we recommend the shared hosting)
- Select your plan (the $2.95 p/m is the cheapest)
- Create a domain name or enter one you already have
- Enter your contact and billing information
- Choose whether to buy any of the package extras (domain privacy, CodeGuard, and Sitelock are selected by default – you’ll need to uncheck these if you don’t want them)
- Agree to the terms, hit submit, and your hosting package is good to go!
7. Hostinger
Despite their exceedingly low cost, Hostinger offer much more generous storage and bandwidth allocations than you'll get with the countless other "cheap" hosting companies out there, meaning you'll still have plenty of room to grow your site even if you're on a shoestring budget.
If you’re looking for the cheapest WordPress web hosting around right now, Hostinger may be the plan for you.
The company’s current offer starts at just $1.39 per month, with an incredibly affordable renewal rate of just $2.99 per month. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that this is on par with -and in some cases even cheaper- than many hosting company’s first-term discounts.
What’s more, Hostinger offers a remarkably long first-time contact of four years, meaning if you lock in this low rate now, you’ll pay just $66.72 and never have to worry about paying for web hosting again until 2026.
Still, just because Hostinger is cheap doesn’t mean they don’t offer value for money.
Each plan allows you to store your site on servers that are fully optimized for WordPress and include the LightSpeed caching tool to accelerate your site. What’s more, plans come with managed WordPress support fully included, which means you never have to worry about updates and security fixtures.
Key Features
- Free SSL
- GIT access
- Weekly backups
- CloudFlare protected nameservers
- 24/7/365 support via live chat
- DNS Management
- 1 x FTP account
Pricing
Should you choose to opt for the aforementioned $1.39 p/m plan, you’ll get all of the above features along with 30 GB SSD storage for one website, plus one email account, though sadly no free domain name.
If you do need a domain name, the premium package may be worth paying the $1.99 per month first term rate ($5.99 after that) as it gets you not only the domain but also 100 GB SSD storage for 10 websites along with unlimited bandwidth, unlimited FTP accounts, and unlimited subdomains.
If all that’s still not enough, you can upgrade even further to the $3.99 p/m ($8.99 p/m regular rate), which ups your storage to 200 GB and also includes free daily backups and free CloudFlare CDN.
Pros and Cons of Hostinger
Pros
- Best budget WordPress web hosting plans
- The premium plan offers up to 100 free domain-based email accounts
- Advanced features for more experienced WordPress developers, including GIT access and unlimited Cronjobs.
- Localized presence in almost all major geographical locations (great option for those with an international audience).
Cons
- The lowest-priced11-year-old plan doesn't include a domain name
- No telephone support
- Performance speeds are lower than other hosting providers.
How to Get Started?
- Visit Hostinger.com and select your plan
- Create an account
- Add in your billing information
- Start using your hosting account.
How to Choose the Best Web Hosting Company for WordPress?
Even once you narrow your search for the best WordPress web hosting, you’ll still find yourself with a number of options to choose from
With that in mind, let’s take a look at some of the things you’ll need to consider when choosing the right package for you.
1. Shared Web Hosting
Shared hosting is the most common, namely because it’s also the least expensive.
Hosting companies can offer low-cost hosting plans by placing multiple websites on a single server. Each site ultimately shares the resources of that server, hence the name.
While criticisms of this type of hosting are that your site may suffer if another site on the same server experiences a surge in traffic, many of the best hosting companies have taken steps to prevent this problem with various “resource protection” features.
On the plus side, shared hosting does generally provide enough storage and bandwidth for the majority of small-medium websites and blogs, but on the downside, you’ll have to handle things like security, backups, and updates yourself.
2. Managed WordPress Hosting
If the idea of sorting out your own updates and security fills you with dread, managed WordPress hosting may be more your thing.
In essence, you’re still getting a shared hosting plan with this one, but you’re simply paying a little bit more for it in order to have your hosting company take care of backups, security, etc., for you.
3. Dedicated Hosting
If you’re hosting a large-scale website that consistently generates a high volume of traffic, switching to a dedicated hosting plan may be the right move for you.
With dedicated hosting, you’re no longer sharing resources with any other websites. Instead, you have a whole server all to yourself with ample resources to meet the high demand for your website.
Other Things to Consider
Along with choosing the right kind of package, there are other important things to take into consideration when choosing the right WordPress hosting package for you.
These include:
1. Storage
Storage literally refers to how much space you have on your hosting server to store the files that make up your website.
This is measured in gigabytes and megabytes, and while some of the best plans will offer unlimited storage -or at least plenty of it- you may find that some of the cheaper hosting plans severely restrict your storage space.
2. Bandwidth
In web hosting terms, bandwidth refers to the connection between your hosting server and the end user’s browser and how much capacity that connection has to transfer data between them.
The more visitors head to your website, the more bandwidth it takes, and if you have a particular traffic surge at any given time, you may find that you don’t have sufficient bandwidth.
This means that your site will slow down for those users and ruin their experience.
3. Uptime
As I mentioned earlier, one of the essential features of truly great web hosting is uptime.
Again, there’s a literal meaning here. Uptime refers to the amount of time that your website is “up” and available to visitors.
Overload servers, security problems, and a myriad of other things can all affect a hosting company’s ability to keep your website running, and no hosting company can ever truly guarantee 100% uptime, but the closer you can get to it (anything 99% and above, though ideally 99.95%), the better.
4. Renewal Rates
As you’ve no doubt learned by now, many web hosting companies offer heavily discounted deals to hook customers, increasing the price after a first (usually 12 month) term.
So, when you’re picking the plan, it’s important not to get too lured in by incredibly low-cost offers only to find yourself stung with an expensive hosting plan after that first year is up.
Instead, take a look at how much the post-first-term renewal rates are in order to get some idea as to the true cost of your hosting plan.
Frequently Asked Questions About WordPress Web Hosting
Q1. What’s the difference between WordPress hosting and regular hosting?
Ans. While standard shared web hosting may be OK for running your site, dedicated WordPress hosting plans offer features that are tailored to getting the most out of the platform, such as higher-than-average PHP memory and automatic updates.
Q2. Is hosting necessary for WordPress?
Ans. If you’re planning to use WordPress.com’s own plans, then you don’t need to have your own hosting, but if you hope to run a self-hosted site that gives you maximum control over the design, security, and functionality of your site, then yes, choosing a good WordPress hosting plan is important.
Q3. What is managed WordPress hosting?
Ans. Managed WordPress hosting is a service offered by many hosting companies in which they take on the responsibility for handling all the technical aspects of your site as updates, backups, security, and server performance.
Q4. How much RAM does a WordPress site need?
Ans. Depending on the size of your site, you’ll need a minimum of 512MB of RAM, though 1GB or more would naturally be better.
Q5. Can I move my WordPress site from one host to another?
Ans. Yes. WordPress migration is a common feature that many good hosting companies are happy to do for you, either as part of their service or for a nominal fee. If you know what you’re doing, you can even carry out the migration yourself.
What is the Best WordPress Web Hosting in 2022? My Verdict
So, there you have it, my pick of the top 7 WordPress web hosting providers currently on the market in 2022, but which one is the best of the best?
If you ask me, that all depends on what you need the most from your hosting company.
If funds are limited and you need the best budget WordPress hosting, Hostinger’s cheap hosting and long-term fixed rates will hold plenty of appeal, while WPEngine is a much better choice for enterprises, digital agencies, and high-traffic sites, with a solid reputation for customer service.
That said, if you simply want a recommendation for the best all-around WordPress host around right now, look no further than WPX, whose unparalleled support, security, pricing, and performance make them truly unbeatable. If you are asking me which WordPress web hosting service to go with, WPX is the best overall hosting solution, in my opinion.
