Today we will talk about How to Choose the Best WordPress Web Hosting Provider (Comparative Review)
What many people often overlook when building a blog site is the web hosting of the website. It is necessary to know that the web hosting of the website is one of the key factors for success of the website.
Choosing the best WordPress web hosting can significantly improve your website’s SEO while increasing your website’s sales (especially if it’s an e-commerce site).
There are many types of web hosting, including free web hosting, shared web hosting, VPS, dedicated hosting, and managed WordPress web hosting. In this article, I will share with you how to choose the best WordPress web hosting.
I have a newly created WordPress blog site, and the number of page views is gradually increasing every month. I have tried several different web hosts before, and at the same time, individual domestic browsing users are also praising the relatively powerful web hosts selected by this website.
Although this website does not use domestic web hosting, this website is built on the basis of Bluehost. Whether it is a domestic browsing user or a foreign browsing user, the loading speed of the website is not bad.
According to the personal test of this website, Bluehost (which can be paid by Alipay and PayPal) has a good overall performance regardless of whether it is aimed at or outside.
At the same time, in order to help more users who need to build their own websites, we have collected and integrated the evaluation results of the top WordPress web hosting providers and compiled this article.
The test objects include the speed, uptime, and reliability of the web hosting of multiple WordPress sites (you can swipe to read the test comparison in the article below).
If you're in a hurry to find the best WordPress web hosting, just take a look at our carefully curated list of web hosting. These WordPress web hosting providers are renowned in the industry for both quality and service.
WordPress Web Hosting Conditions
WordPress is a lightweight script, and it is compatible with almost all good web hosting companies. The requirements of the WordPress website builder for virtual hosts are as follows:
- PHP7 or above;
- MySQL 5.6 or above, or MariaDB 10.1 and above;
- Support HTTPS (SSL)
WordPress site builders are so popular that all premium web hosting companies have introduced a one-click WordPress installation feature. All WordPress web hosting companies listed in this article fully support WordPress website builders.
Factors to Consider When Choosing WordPress Web Hosting
How to Choose the Best WordPress Web Hosting? What factors should we consider? The speed, security, and reliability of WordPress web hosting are all our top choices to consider.
But while speed, security, and reliability are our top priorities, it's important to be clear about "what you need." Combining our own actual needs before buying WordPress web hosting can save a lot of money.
Assess Your Needs for WordPress Web Hosting
There are various types of WordPress web servers, including free, shared, VPS, dedicated, cloud hosting, and managed WordPress web hosting. We need to look at each type one by one and choose the type that suits us.
Free WordPress Web Hosting
While there are a lot of free WordPress web hosting on the market, almost all free web hosting providers have their own flaws. In general, we can find free WordPress web hosting on forum websites or other discussion groups.
In most cases, this type of web hosting is managed by an individual who then sells a portion of the web hosting space for some financial compensation. However, such suppliers will place their advertisements on our own website.
Some free web hosting providers also place a text link in the footer of the user's personal website. These people fill the free space gap by selling banner ads or text links. And the biggest disadvantage of free WordPress web hosting is its instability. Therefore, free web hosting is not reliable.
We don't know when they will stop free service.
If you take your website and business seriously, definitely don’t use free WordPress web hosting.
Shared WordPress Web Hosting
As of now, shared WordPress web hosting is still the most used type of WordPress web hosting for newbies. Shared web hosting is generally more affordable and is a starting point for beginners to build a website.
Shared WordPress web hosting shares a server with many other websites. Because many websites are using the same server, web hosting providers can offer their services at a very affordable price.
The great thing about shared web hosting (including these WordPress web hosting providers we recommend below) is unlimited resources. In fact, nothing in the world is infinite.
If your website takes up a lot of server load, the provider will force you to upgrade your account. If they don't upgrade your account, it will negatively impact the performance of multiple other websites on the same server.
Shared web hosting is the best choice for small businesses and bloggers.
WordPress VPS Web Hosting
VPS refers to Virtual Private Server, which is a virtual machine. It divides the physical server into multiple relatively independent servers. Although users also share a server with other websites, VPS allows users to manage and set up in the way of dedicated servers.
At the same time, VPS also has the privacy protection properties of physical computers, and can also run specific server software.
Usually, developers, mid-level users, and mid-sized bloggers use VPS hosting to expand their websites. If you do not have any technical skills and knowledge, it is recommended that you purchase a managed VPS server.
This sentence means that the WordPress web hosting provider is responsible for system upgrades, and at the same time, they can also help users.
VPS web hosting is suitable for medium-sized businesses, high-traffic bloggers, and designers and developers.
WordPress Dedicated Server Web Hosting
A dedicated server for a website is actually a physical server that we can rent from a website hosting provider. Users enjoy a high degree of autonomy in server management and control, including the server's operating system and hardware settings.
If you are just new to building a website, you don't really need this kind of dedicated server. If your website has a lot of traffic, consider upgrading your website's server to a dedicated server.
The WordPress knowledge-sharing website WPBeginner is built on SiteGround. If you have no experience as a sysadmin or server administrator, I suggest you use a managed WordPress dedicated hosting. Providers that offer managed web hosting employ full-time sysadmins to manage and maintain the servers.
At the same time, these administrators are also responsible for software upgrades, server monitoring, telephone customer service, and other services. Most top websites use clusters of dedicated servers.
WordPress Dedicated Web Hosting is suitable for blog sites with heavy traffic.
Managed WordPress Web Hosting
Because a large number of users are using WordPress, some web hosting providers have launched managed web hosting. Registering an account with this type of provider allows users to only host WordPress sites and does not support other website builders.
The great thing about managed WordPress web hosting is that users don’t need to worry about anything related to the web server at all. The provider will help you optimize your site's performance, keep your site secure, and make regular backups of your site. On top of that, the vendor will tell you exactly which plugins are negatively impacting.
In short, managed web hosting does not have as many troubles as other hosts, it is fast, and the quality of customer service is particularly high. However, the price of managed WordPress web hosting is much higher than another web hosting.
The cost of using the more popular managed WordPress web hosting is $29 per month, and users can only deploy 1 website, with no more than 25,000 website visitors per month. The premium package costs $99 per month and can deploy multiple domains. However, the average website novice can't afford this cost.
Managed web hosting is best for long-established bloggers who can share their earnings to justify choosing managed WordPress web hosting. This type of web hosting is mainly designed for those who lack the technology and have no time to solve technical problems. Here we recommend WP Engine, a managed WordPress web host.
Now that we know all the various factors that go into WordPress web hosting, it's time to make a choice. The service and customer support of several well-known WordPress web hosting providers in the industry is excellent, according to the evaluation of authoritative web hosting evaluation websites. And they all got a perfect 5/5. You can take a look at the list below.
5 Best WordPress Web Hosting Providers & Plans
1. Bluehost
Founded in 1996, Bluehost is one of the oldest web hostings and is now one of the officially recognized web hostings by WordPress. If you use Bluehost's services, even if the website traffic is particularly heavy, webmasters don't need to worry about the website slowing down.
Bluehost's expert team adheres to the 24/7 customer service tenet and guides users at any time by phone, email, and live chat. And Bluehost is considered the number one name for small business website hosting services.
In addition to this, they are introducing an exclusive 63% discount, free domain name, free SSL certificate, and free web page builder for new WordPress builders.
In addition, If your business is aimed at foreign countries at the same time, it is recommended that you use Bluehost hosting.
You can also refer to the 7 steps to build a WordPress blog to learn how to use Bluehost to build a website.
2. SiteGround
SiteGround is one of the most popular and highest-rated WordPress web hostings in the WordPress industry. They are very fast and have high-security features. Its 24/7 customer service is number one in the industry, so it is also one of the official WordPress website hosts. SiteGround's well-known features are automatic upgrades, built-in WP caching, one-click login, and GIT version control.
In addition, SiteGround's data centers are located in 6 regions including the United States, Europe, Asia (Singapore), and Australia.
You can refer to the SiteGround WordPress website building tutorial to learn to build a website from 0.
3. HostGator
HostGator hosts more than 8 million website domains and is one of the most popular web hostings in the industry. This web hosting provider maintains 99.9% uptime, and 24/7 customer service, so many users choose to use HostGator to build their websites.
In addition, they also launched a free domain name and free SSL service.
4. DreamHost
DreamHost is also 18 years old and civilized with its simplicity. Users have a customizable dashboard, one-click WordPress site builder installation, WordPress auto-updates, unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth, and a free SSD that can make your website 2x faster.
DreamHost hosts more than 600,000 WordPress independent blogs and websites, there are no installation fees involved, and users also get a website domain name for free.
5. GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks has become a well-known brand in the WordPress web hosting industry. The host's website runs very fast, has 24/7 customer support, and is ecologically friendly.
This theme provides a one-click WordPress automatic installation, server update management system, upgrade security factor, free CDN service, free website relocation, and 5 different data centers.
The Best WordPress Web Hosting Details Compared
After learning about the excellent WordPress web hosts listed above, I am afraid you still have questions – which web host should I choose to host my website?
To help you pick the best WordPress web hosting for your actual needs, we’ve put together a few other resources.
- WordPress web hosting performance details comparison;
- A comparison of the functions of a single WordPress virtual host;
The Best WordPress Web Hosting Performance Details Compared
This article is compiled by answersrates.com. The website's evaluation of WordPress virtual hosting is based on actual data and experience.
What sets it apart from other WordPress web hosting review sites is that it has agreements with these independent WordPress web hosting providers and actually reviews their respective services.
The third-party tools used to review these web hosts include Pingdom, LoadImpact, and Bitcatcha, which help reviewers pick the best WordPress web hosting in the industry.
To more accurately measure the performance and service of all WordPress web hosting providers, they host WordPress sites on each server with the same settings. Also, use the default WordPress theme.
Next, they use the import function of WordPress to import multimedia materials such as pictures into the website, and actually simulate the real WordPress website.
They then used the website speed testing platform Pingdom to test the speed of the demo website on multiple web hosts. Load Impact was also used to test the responsiveness of multiple connection points by sending virtual users to various websites. In this way, you can clearly understand the performance of major WordPress web hosts during peak traffic periods.
Preferably, they use Bitchatcha to test the response time of their web hosting in multiple geographic locations, including the United States, London, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Brazil, India, Sydney, and Japan. Doing this will allow you to gauge which web hosting provider has the best performance in each location.
The above are the testing methods and strategies of this platform. Next, let's take a look at the performance of the best WordPress web hosts on the market to see which one is the fastest.
Bluehost WordPress Web Hosting
Bluehost is perhaps the largest WordPress website host in the world and the official WordPress-recommended web host. Their web hosting packages include a pre-installed WordPress website builder.
As you can see from the image below, the site used Load Impact to load-test the site on Bluehost's servers. They created 100 unique site visitors at a time, and then tested the site's speed during peak traffic, from various sources.
Here are the test results:
The blue line is worth the number of active virtual users on the site, while the green line refers to the server load time. As you can see, throughout the test, the server load remained basically stable, even during peak traffic periods.
After a high-load speed test of the host, the team used Bitcatcha to test the server's response time in different geographic locations. You can see the test results below.
The loading time of Bluehost servers in the US is less than 1 second, which is very eye-catching. Elsewhere, the loading time was slightly longer, but still no more than 1 second.
So, if your website audience is in the US, using Bluehost will greatly benefit your website operations.
The team also reviews Bluehost's customer service team, features on its servers, and pricing. The team's research results show that Bluehost is the preferred virtual host for WordPress website building, especially suitable for small businesses and small companies to build websites.
Moreover, you can use Bluehost to build a website. This blog is built on the basis of Bluehost hosting, and there are related independent blog site-building and e-commerce website-building tutorials.
- Advantages: Free domain name + free SSL certificate (i.e. including https:// prefix)
- Pros: Officially recommended web hosting by WordPress
- Pros: Free test site
- Disadvantage: sometimes the customer service response is a bit slow
SiteGround WordPress Web Hosting
SiteGround is also one of the most popular and highest-rated web hosting providers in the WordPress industry. They have a premium hosting plan, and a plugin specifically designed for WordPress site optimization, and they've taken great care of their site's security.
Therefore, the official WordPress website also designated SiteGround as the website's managed host (also called server and virtual host).
You can see from the picture below that the site used Load Impact to load test the site on the SiteGround server. They created 100 unique site visitors at a time and then tested the site's speed during peak traffic, which also came from different visitors.
The blue line in the above image refers to the number of virtual users on the website, and the green line refers to the server load time. SiteGround's performance was solid, with only a slight fluctuation when it hit 50 users, but it quickly returned to normal, and page load times were as short as ever.
After running a high-load speed test on the host, the team tested the response time of the SG server in different geographic locations using Bitcatcha. You can see the test results below.
As tested, SiteGround servers performed very strongly in the US and elsewhere except Japan.
If your website audience is in Asia, you can set the data center of your website in the Singapore data center, which can solve the problem of website slowdown encountered by users in the Asia Pacific when accessing the website.
The team also evaluated SiteGround's customer support, server capabilities, and pricing. They found SiteGround to be particularly friendly to newcomers to building websites, and their customer service skills and quality were excellent.
- Pros: Best WordPress customer support, good uptime, fast, free SSL certificate;
- Pros: Multiple data centers around the world (US, Europe, Asia, and Australia)
- Pros: Free website relocation
- Advantages: The WP novice website is built on the SG server
- Cons: No free domain name, premium web hosting is a bit expensive
HostGator WordPress Web Hosting
HostGator is also a very popular WordPress web hosting, it hosts more than 8 million websites. This web host is similar to Bluehost, and both have launched WordPress web hosting packages.
But how does HostGator perform when the traffic to the website is particularly huge?
This site for WP Newbies also did a server load impact test at HostGator. See how your server performs with an ever-increasing number of calls by creating more than 100 virtual access users.
The green line in the image above represents the page load time, and the blue line represents the number of users on the site. We can see that when the user on the website reaches 80, the server is running very smoothly. But after more than 80 users, it starts to slow down.
This result is not bad for shared web hosting, because the site also shares server resources with other sites. As our website grows and expands, we need to upgrade to VPS hosting or managed WordPress hosting.
After running a high-load speed test on the host, the team tested the response time of HostGator servers in different geographic locations using Bitcatcha. You can see the test results below.
After testing, we found that the performance of the HostGator server is also very strong. The response time of the server is less than 1 second. Within the United States, its impact time is only 37 milliseconds.
At the same time, the WP Novice Platform also evaluated customer service, the functions that come with the server, and the price. The result is that HostGator is also a trusted WordPress web host.
- Pros: Web hosting is fast, stable, and has 24/7 customer support
- Pros: New to WP, this site is hosted on HostGator
- Advantages: The price is relatively low at the beginning, and it supports free relocation of the website
- Disadvantage: follow-up costs are more expensive
DreamHost WordPress Web Hosting
DreamHost has been around for 18 years now, and this web host is known for its stability and reliability. This web hosting provider has launched a one-click WordPress installation service, and it is also the official website hosting web host recommended by WordPress.
The WP Novice website also conducted a server load impact test on DreamHost. See how your server performs with an ever-increasing number of calls by creating more than 100 virtual access users.
Here are the test results:
The blue line in the image above is the number of virtual users on the website, and the green line is the server load time. We can see that the load on the server remained stable throughout the test, and was still in a steady state when traffic peaked.
After testing the loading speed of the server under the load state, let's take a look at the response time of the server. Of course, the geographical location of the test is different.
The geographic locations for the test are similar to those of the previous servers, located in the US East, US West, London, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Bangalore, India, Sydney, Australia, and Japan.
DreamHost, a WordPress web host, works very well in the US, loading in less than a second, but is a little slower elsewhere.
Overall, DreamHost is a very good web host for websites located in any geographic location.
At the same time, the WP Novice Platform also evaluated customer service, the features that come with the server, and the price, and they found that DreamHost is the best choice for those businesses and individuals who pay special attention to privacy.
This web hosting provider offers domain factor protection for every website domain name. And recently, DreamHost went to war with the U.S. Department of Justice to protect the privacy of its client's websites.
- Pros: Fast speed, free SSL certificate, free domain factor protection service, one-click WordPress installation
- Pros: Officially recommended web hosting by WordPress
- Pros: Free web program firewall included
- Cons: Web hosting control panel is a bit outdated
GreenGeeks WordPress Web Hosting
GreenGeeks is known in the WordPress web hosting industry for its premium performance and welcoming friendliness. Their customer service forms include live chat, email, and telephone calls, and service hours are 24/7.
The WP novice team also used Load Impact to test and evaluate the loading speed of the website under the load state of GreenGeeks.
The following is the speed performance of the website and the server call requests from multiple points when the website traffic reaches 100 visitors:
We can see that during testing, GreenGeeks performed as well as ever. The speed of the website is also excellent with the increase of visitors to the website. It can be said that with the development of the website, GreenGeeks can fully meet the needs of the website.
After testing the loading speed of the website under load, let's take a look at the response time of the GreenGeeks server. The test was conducted on GreenGeeks in various geographic locations.
Let's take a look at the specific results:
We can see that GreenGeeks performs very well in all geographies, all under 1 second. India and the Asia Pacific were slightly slower.
The same can be said, after all, GreenGeeks has 5 different data centers around the world, which are located in different regions of the United States and Europe.
Users in North America, Europe, and South America enjoy GreenGeeks being the fastest and most reliable. If your target website is located in these areas, you can choose to use GreenGeeks to build a WordPress website.
At the same time, the WP Novice Platform also evaluated the customer service, the features that come with the server, and the price. They found that DreamHost is the best choice for those enterprises and individuals who pay special attention to high-quality customer service and environment-friendly services.
However, with the increase in website traffic, users also need to upgrade the corresponding package.
I have launched a tutorial on using GreenGeeks to build a paid reading and knowledge website.
- Pros: Fast, affordable, free website domain name, free SSL certificate
- Pros: 30-day money-back guarantee
- Pros: Free website relocation
- Disadvantage: Continued use is slightly more expensive
How to Choose the Best WordPress Web Hosting (Quick Review)
The above is a performance comparison of the top WordPress web hosting providers for WP beginner sites, and maybe you can get some hints from the above comparison.
In order to make it easier for everyone to choose their favorite WordPress virtual host, answersrates.com also compiled a list based on their comparison results.
Based on the in-depth evaluation results of WP beginners, our conclusion is that if you want to build a blog website, you can't go wrong with Bluehost.
However, Bluehost also has Bluehost hosting (support Alipay payment ), you can also choose. The blog site is built on the basis of the Bluehost.
However, the above WordPress virtual hosts are all excellent, and you can choose to build a website according to your own needs. Their combination of server uptime, server responsiveness, customer service quality, and pricing is good.
Frequently Asked Questions on How to Choose the Best WordPress Web Hosting
WP Newbies is a site that has helped more than 100,000 web users, and they have sorted out a lot of questions about web hosting.
Below we list these questions to answer your questions.
Do I need to rent WordPress web hosting to build a website?
If you want to build a WordPress website yourself, you need to rent WordPress web hosting. Web hosting is a place to store important files such as website files, databases, and user data. All the websites we see on the internet use web hosting.
Are there any free WordPress web hosting providers?
There are free web hosting providers, but I recommend that you stay away from these free web hosting. Most of the time, free WordPress web hosting will place ads on the user’s website. They even spread malware to users' websites. They can also shut down servers suddenly without notifying users. If you are serious about your website and online business, I do not recommend free web hosting.
Free web hosting platforms like WordPress.com and wix.com.
How much does it cost to build a WordPress website?
The cost of building a WordPress website varies according to individual needs. The cost of building a website can range from $100 to $3000.
Do website domain names and WordPress web hosting have to be from the same provider?
Not required. You can register a domain name from a website domain registrar such as NameCheap, or GoDaddy, and then rent web space from the web hosting providers listed above. However, if you don't have a website domain name ready, you can directly choose the same web hosting provider for your domain name and web hosting (many web hosting providers now offer free domain names).
Can I use this type of WordPress web hosting to build an e-commerce site?
You can choose to use the e-commerce website hosting packages from the WordPress hosting providers listed above to build your website. They all provide SSL certificates, which are generally a must for building and operating an e-commerce website. If you are looking for professional e-commerce web hosting, you can try our best WooCommerce web hosting.
In addition, you can also refer to the WooCommerce e-commerce website construction tutorial launched by this site.
How can I make my WordPress web hosting account more secure?
Your web hosting account is where important information such as website files and databases are stored, so it is very important to ensure its security. The best way is to use a strong password and avoid logging into your web hosting account in public places (unless you use a VPN). We also recommend that you learn the ultimate WordPress security protection tutorial launched on this site to effectively protect your site security.
Does WordPress web hosting come with a control panel (cPanel)?
Many WordPress web hosting providers use a control panel (cPanel). You don’t actually need a control panel, but when you install WordPress, having a control panel makes the installation process very simple and makes it easy to manage your website email accounts.
How much website traffic can a WordPress web hosting company handle?
These WordPress web hosting providers can handle billions of website traffic every month.
But how much traffic your website can handle depends on the WordPress web hosting package you choose. Most shared web hosting can easily handle 1000 to 2000 user visits per day, but only if you need to optimize the performance of your website.
As your own website gets more traffic, your web hosting provider may ask you to upgrade to VPS hosting or managed WordPress hosting.
Can I change WordPress web hosting later?
OK. If you are not satisfied with the virtual host where the current website is located, you can also change the virtual host where the website is located. Most WordPress web hosting companies offer free website migration services that can make the entire website relocation process easier. But if you want to do your own website relocation, it's best to learn specialized techniques.
How does the data center location of a WordPress web hosting affect a website?
The companies we recommend for WordPress web hosting above usually let users choose their own data center. A specific geographic location and the data center at that location do have an impact on a website.
If your website's target audience is in the United States, you should choose a data center located in the United States. If your target audience is in Europe, you should choose a European data center.
If you're really not sure which data center to choose, you can also choose to use the WordPress CDN service to speed up your website across all geographic locations.
Should I pay monthly for web hosting or long-term web hosting?
You can notice that almost all WordPress web hosting offers long-term packages. If you really take your website seriously, it should be in business for more than a month.
We generally recommend that you do not choose a monthly payment package because the cost is almost twice that of a long-term package. Generally speaking, it is better to choose a 1-year or 2-year package.
Do I really need a WordPress web hosting extension?
Typically, WordPress web hosting companies sell a variety of services to their users. If you're just a novice, you generally don't need this type of service.
We recommend that you cancel unnecessary options during the purchase process to save a fee. We only need to buy the most core WordPress website hosting functions.
In the future, if we need, we will purchase extended applications and extended functions of these WordPress web hosting.
Do these WordPress web hosting companies offer website backup features?
Yes, almost all WordPress hosting companies claim to offer daily backups of their website. But in fact, we recommend that users install some WordPress website backup plugins and back up their websites themselves. This is mainly due to website security considerations.
Are other WordPress web hosts missing from this web hosting list?
Yes, there are literally thousands of WordPress website hosting providers on the market today, and it’s impossible for us to list them all in this article. If all are listed, it will only make it difficult for everyone to make a choice, and it will also make the novice of the website look at a loss.
And WP Novice has not only tested these 5 providers, but they have also tested hosts such as WP Engine, Flywheel, Kinsta, Cloudways, GoDaddy, LiquidWeb, InMotion, A2Hosting, HostPapa, NameCheap, etc.
These top WordPress web hosts listed in this article are the most feature-packed and the most affordable.
Which WordPress web hosting provider do you think is the best?
If I had to pick 3 out of the 5 best WordPress hosting providers listed in this article, it would be the following 3:
This last question is not a joke, we have repeatedly recommended these web hosts to other consulting customers. You can also refer to this article on the best web hosting.