WordPress Hosting Comparison

When building a WordPress site, the choice of which web host to use is crucial. Unfortunately, many people dismiss the importance of selecting a web host and end up making an uninformed choice. Their website subsequently suffers if the web host provider is sub-standard.

Selecting a trustworthy and efficient WordPress host helps you significantly improve your website’s performance while ensuring secure online interactions between you and your users.

Let’s delve further into the workings of web hosting with WordPress, highlighting the major players to consider in your quest for the perfect WordPress host.

What is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is a service enabling individuals and organizations to upload and view web pages or websites on the internet. Specialized computer systems (servers) store web pages and websites. When users browse the internet, they can enter your domain or web address in the search field to view your webpages. Doing this initiates a connection from their system to your server, presenting your webpages for the user to peruse.

Many web hosting providers demand that you own a domain before they offer their services. In most cases, the hosting provider can help you get a domain if you don’t already have one.

What Makes Comparing WordPress Hosts so Important?

Web hosting is a vital aspect of any successful site. Selecting the right WordPress host for your website’s needs can help drive sales and even boost your SEO.

WordPress offers users a wide range of hosting options such as Shared, VPS, Free and Dedicated. In this article we will help you to choose the perfect WordPress host for your site.

What are the Different Web Hosting Options?

Web hosting is a dynamic system. Many web hosts provide several service packages for their users ranging drastically in pricing and quality. Picking from the list of hosting options is among the first and most fundamental steps you’ll have to take.

Although there are several ways you can differentiate hosting packages, management level and features, the key differential is the server technology. This is critical because it directly influences tons of features including scalability, security, performance and the amount of effort you’ll have to dedicate to the site.

You should firstly focus on finding the web hosting solution that best suits your needs. After analyzing this, you can then proceed to make your choice from what is left.

To guide you through the decision-making process, let’s examine four popular hosting options: shared, cloud hosting, dedicated and VPS (Virtual Private Browser).

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is self-explanatory. A shared hosting account means storing your website on the same server with several other websites.

Exactly how many sites are on the shared server? It depends on the web hosting provider and your setup. It can go up to hundreds or even thousands of websites.

Pros

• Shared Operating Costs
• Relatively Cheap with reasonable prices
• Ideal for first-timers

Cons

• Slow Server
• Little Processing Power
• Increased downtime.

Who Should Use It?

After considering its disadvantages, you might wonder if shared hosting is a good choice. It is. It’s an excellent option for hosting low-traffic websites. Perfect examples include private websites, test and development websites and brochure sites. In general, sites that don’t prioritize uptime.

Shared hosting is the perfect option if you’re working with a tight budget. It gives you the opportunity to generate a solid online presence with limited resources. Its affordable pricing makes shared hosting a vital tool for promoting equality on the world wide web.

The popular host choices in this category include InMotion, Bluehost and Siteground.

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting is a more recent addition to the list of hosting options. It is best described as a more affordable variant of VPS hosting.

It offers users the use of several remote servers. Each server in the remote network performs a different task. If any server gets compromised or develops a fault, the remaining servers pick up the slack and assume control of the defective server’s responsibilities.

Pros

• You get to enjoy high-level Security  because your site is isolated from any physical server issues

• it has high Uptime   built into its structure

• It reduces unexpected downtime and scales your server resources

Cons

• The price fluctuates and at times it has some hidden costs which come into light when the deal has already been closed.
• Erratic website traffic, which can raise the cost.

. Vulnerability to cyber-attacks

Who Should Use It?

Cloud hosting is a premium choice for medium to large business sites which hope to expand quickly.

You can join a cloud hosting plan if traffic on your website is unpredictable and you have plans to scale sometime in the future. Websites having over 50,000 visitors to their pages every month can benefit from a cloud hosting plan. If you feel your needs have outgrown a shared hosting plan and want an upgrade, cloud hosting is an excellent alternative to VPS.

Cloud hosting include A2 Hosting, Cloudways, and InMotion

Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting, as the name implies, means having a server all to yourself. While it offers tons of benefits, it also has a few shortcomings to consider.

Pros

•  Elimination of the “bad neighbour” issue.
• There is more freedom for customization.
• It offers high flexibility

Cons

• A dedicated server setup isn’t cheap.
• There is a need for some technical knowledge about server technology and computers
• You may need to hire a   server administrator to manage it
• Any failure will affect your site.

Who Should Use It?

You can use a dedicated hosting if  Your website is growing and needs to be able to handle an increase in traffic. Security is a concern for your website.

Get a dedicated server for two reasons. First, if your business has specialized requirements when it comes to hardware, or second if you need better control over data privacy.

The best-dedicated host choices include InterServer, Hostwinds and LiquidWeb.

VPS Hosting

VPS (Virtual Private Server) goes a step beyond shared web hosting. When a website’s need for server resources expands beyond the capacity of their shared hosting plan, they usually upgrade to a VPS.

With a VPS, your site still shares a single server unit with several websites. The difference is, you share the server with a significantly lower number of websites.

VPS uses a primary server split into several virtual servers. The virtual servers are available for customization by the individual sites that use them.

A VPS offers dedicated server resources even though you’re sharing the primary server with other websites.

Pros

• You enjoy the resources of a dedicated server.
• Freedom to use customized configurations for your server.
• Better uptime rate and fast loading speeds.
• Cost-efficient compared to dedicated servers.

Cons

• You get to share the primary server with other sites.
• Complicated setup compared to shared hosting servers.
• Restricted management.

Who is VPS Hosting For?

VPS hosting is the ideal choice for small to medium-sized businesses who can’t afford to suffer downtime during operations. Other groups that can benefit from VPS hosting include site owners with resource needs beyond what shared hosting can provide.

A VPS is an excellent option for tech-savvy website owners needing to make alterations to the server’s configuration.

Sites with heavy files such as images and videos will enjoy a virtual private server. Sites that have interactive elements and complex files will be better suited to a VPS rather than a shared hosting server.

Managed  Hosting

Managed hosting is a WordPress-specific hosting that adds a number of convenient features to make it easier to manage, secure, and speed up your WordPress site. It isn’t so much a type of plan as it is a description of the service you’ll receive.

While most hosting plans leave the majority of the work up to you, managed hosting takes some of the responsibility for keeping your site going off your shoulders. This makes it an intriguing option for many website owners.

Pros

• It takes care of updates for you, and create frequent backups of your site
• It Scans your site for security threats
• It handles performance optimization

Cons

• It is more expensive than their unmanaged variants
• Managed hosting takes away the option of configuring your server and optimizing your site’s performance and security on your own.

Who is managed to host for?

If you don’t know much about WordPress, servers, and all the other technical stuff involved in running a website, then managed hosting is for you. It saves you time and worry, and can result in a site that’s safer and performs more smoothly. Plus, you’ll have access to readily-available help whenever you need it.

Comparing WordPress Hosting Platforms

Bluehost

• Uptime percentage: 99.98%
• Loading time: 553ms
• Support features: 24/7 live chat, phone
• Key features: Single-click WordPress install, free SSL certificate and domain for a year.

Bluehost is a common hosting service choice for bloggers and small businesses that use WordPress. The reason for its popularity is quite simple: they have an affordable monthly rate of $2.75. Other enticing features include easy use (single-click WordPress installation) and limited performance problems.

It offers good value for its price. Premium speed and uptime monitoring tool Pingdom recorded a 99.98% uptime average with just 35 breaks (less than 1 hour) and 553ms for loading speed in the past 12 months.

It ranks among the select web hosts to receive an official recommendation from WordPress.org’s community. All their plans have a free SSL certificate, easy install feature for WordPress and WordPress staging environment.

Website migration isn’t free on Bluehost’s cheapest plan. It would cost about $150 to transfer a site. Signing up for the Plus plan or entitles you to one free website migration.

Bluehost boasts an extensive catalogue of WordPress tutorials, and each plan comes with speedy, reliable customer support. It’s $2.75 per month plan (running for 36-months) comes with a complimentary domain name and SSL for 1 year. Renewal costs are about $7.99 per month. Bluehost offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Pros

• Excellent uptime rate and load speed.
• Free domain name.
• WordPress.org recommendation.

Cons

• No monthly payment option.
• Cheapest plan doesn’t include complimentary site migration.

Cloudways

• Uptime percentage: 99.99%
• Loading time: 553ms
• Support features: Excellent 24-hour support via several channels
• Key features: Built-in SSL, Easy set-up for new sites, One-click installation for apps

Cloudways leverages the power of cloud computing to manage the operations of your WordPress site. Cloudways runs with cloud technology from the tech industry’s major players, rather than operating from physical servers. They store sites on several servers including Google, Amazon, Linode, Digital Ocean and Vultr.

A Cloudways WordPress hosting plan offers you lots of exciting features. Professionals handle all the plans along with several safeguards to ensure smooth operations. Safeguards include a firewall, backup system and an automated healing feature to handle complications.

It optimizes its servers for speed giving your users a pleasant browsing experience. The innovative content delivery network and caching systems help boost site accessibility regardless of the visitor’s location.

Features provided for Cloudways WordPress hosting users include:

• Cloud hosting infrastructure.
• In-built CDN (Content Delivery Network), WordPress cache to optimize site performance.
• Automated backup system.
• 24-hour monitoring.
• Automated healing and patching.
• Scalability.
• Dedicated firewalls and complimentary SSL certificate.

You can enjoy reliable customer support because Cloudways manages all their WordPress hosting plans. The support team is available 24/7. They offer a comprehensive knowledge base with tutorials and troubleshooting information.

Cloudways offers users tons of plans. An extra incentive is being able to choose the cloud provider to work with. The plans include a finite amount of resources no matter the service provider you choose, you can simply pick a plan because of the processing power, RAM, bandwidth and storage. The plans are all scalable in case you need more resources down the line.

Pros

• Fast loading speed.
• Excellent uptime rate.
• Exceptional customer support.
• High scalability.
• Complimentary site migration.
• Reliability.

Cons

• Doesn’t offer email hosting.
• Doesn’t offer domain registration.

WPOwl

• Uptime percentage: 100% Uptime SLA
• Loading speed: 553ms
• Support: 24/7, 365 days technical Livechat support team
• Features: Up to 80GB disk space, third-party theme & plugin support, plugin, theme & user manager, cache-control, free SSL, one-click site migration, offsite backups etc.

With WPOwl, you get the best WordPress Hosting in the UK with Guaranteed Performance! All of this site’s hosting packages are fully managed and come with built-in support, optimized for the best performance on WordPress.

WPOwl are a reliable WordPress hosting provider to grow your business and not your average WordPress hosting provider.

On their site, they provide a WordPress Hosting Pricing comparison with major industry names like GoDaddy and WPEngine that shows they have the best values in the market.

When it comes to WordPress Hosting, WPOwl takes a different approach. Their full-service managed WordPress hosting provides advanced, scalable technology paired with the speed and performance to handle your growing business.

Their WordPress hosting packages are specifically designed to meet your needs and they have a solution for every size of business, from the hobbyist blogger to large enterprises.

Feature Comparison

Pros

• Fast, scalable, and secure Managed WordPress hosting.
• Ready-built platform focused on the needs of WordPress users
  · One-click WordPress installation
• Solves all your hosting challenges in one easy-to-use package.

Cons

• Doesn’t offer email hosting.
• Not all plans come with a free domain name

Hostinger

• Uptime percentage: 99.96%
• Loading speed: 308ms
• Support: 24/7 live chat, knowledge base.
• Features: Complimentary SSL and email account, unlimited bandwidth.

Hostinger, originally based in Europe, has data centres in Europe, Asia and the USA. You don’t have the option of picking a data centre immediately, but you can request to switch server locations after signing up. This is a distinctive feature that few web hosting providers can offer you.

Hostinger also offers a website builder which can be very helpful for WordPress beginners.

Furthermore, they offer live chat support 24/7 and a vast collection of WordPress tutorials and guides. The performance is excellent despite operating on WordPress’s cheapest host. Hostinger has a loading speed of 308ms, bettered only by HostGator and A2 Hosting. Uptime is outstanding with a recorded 99.96% in the past year.

The most affordable hosting plan goes for $2.15 per month (48-month plan), with renewal set at $3.49 per month. The plan comes with unlimited bandwidth and disk space of 20GB. They also include an email account, complimentary site migration and an SSL certificate in all their plans.

If you’re not satisfied, they offer a full refund for up to 30 days after signing up.

Pros

• Affordable pricing.
• Single-click WordPress installation.
• Fast loading speed.
• Complimentary site migration.

Cons

• Restricted disk space.
• There’s no phone support
•  Not all plans come with a free domain name

Siteground

• Uptime percentage: 99.99%
• Loading time: 643 ms
• Support Features: 24/7 live chat
• Key Features: Google cloud servers, free https (SSL), free email, free site migration

Siteground is among the most widely adopted WordPress shared hosts. Its exceptional customer support, fast speed and secure network make it a good value for money. It’s one of four hosts with WordPress.org endorsement.

Siteground offers several features including:

• Single-click WordPress installation.
• Automated updates to keep your website on the latest WordPress version.
• A complimentary SSL certificate via Let’s Encrypt.
• WordPress staging area to preview website changes before going live.
• In-built website caching to boost website loading speeds and performance.
• Switching locations for your data centre.

Beyond that, you get to enjoy the 24/7 support of a dedicated team. You will doubtless find the perfect choice for your WordPress site from the variety of hosting packages on offer.

Pros

• Exceptional uptime rate.
• Free transfer for your old site.
• Fast, consistent speed.
• Excellent WordPress support.
• WordPress recommendation and complimentary SSL certificates.

Cons

• · Expensive renewal rates compared to the others.
• No Free Domain
• Limited Data Storage

Greengeeks

• Uptime percentage: 99.95%
• Loading time: 434 ms
• Support Features: 24/7 live chat, phone, knowledge base
• Features: Unlimited storage & bandwidth, automatic updates, free SSL

GreenGeeks is a well-known hosting provider offering far more than ordinary reliable services. Its dependence on green energy sources is a defining attribute. For every bit of power that’s used, GreenGeeks returns over three times the amount of power it consumes as renewable energy.

As a hosting provider, they offer three managed WordPress plans. This includes a single-click installer to get your website operational in a matter of minutes. It automatically handles security issues and updates, giving you the freedom to concentrate on reaching your audience.

The major distinction between its WordPress plans is the performance levels. Each plan comes with unmetered bandwidth and unlimited storage. However, premium features such as an SSL certificate and PowerCacher system are only available in the best plans.

Greengeeks provides several Features for WordPress hosting including:

• Automated WordPress updates to maintain high-performance levels.
• Backups to avoid data loss.
• Personalized security systems with vulnerability solutions.
• Single-click WordPress installation.
• Enhanced worldwide performance with a CDN.
• Unlimited storage.
• Unmetered bandwidth.
• Complimentary site migration.
• Softaculous and cPanel access.
• Complimentary SSL certificate via Let’s Encrypt.

Besides these exciting features, you get access to a well-informed customer support team. GreenGeeks’s support team is available 24/7. You can communicate with them via live chat functions, on the site or by phone.

It’s an excellent choice if you need unproblematic WordPress hosting services. With GreenGeeks, you have professionals in charge of your site’s technical aspects such as performance and security. This means you don’t need to stress about the finer details. The web hosting plans offer scalability, making sure there is ample room for expansion if the need arises.

Pros

• Exceptional customer support.
• Excellent uptime rate.
• Complimentary SSL certificate and website transfer.
• Green energy-focused hosting provider.

Cons

• High renewal rates.
• No 24/7 Phone Support
• No Website Staging

HostGator 

• Uptime percentage 99.97%
• Loading time: 284 ms
• Support features: 24/7 live chat, phone, knowledge base
• Key features: Free site transfer and backups. WordPress optimized servers, unlimited bandwidth

HostGator hosts more than 10 million domains making them one of the most popular web hosting providers on the market.

Similarly to Bluehost, HostGator also offers specialized WordPress hosting solutions, such as “WordPress Hosting.”

They are the best option for high traffic websites that need faster loading times. HostGator WordPress plan should make your site faster across different regions, especially for mobile users.