WordPress is arguably one of the greatest inventions in the history of the world wide web! It has enabled anyone, including total beginners, to easily create and manage websites on their own and without doing any coding work. And the best part of it is that it’s completely free and open source.
Most websites nowadays are powered by WordPress, and it shouldn’t take a lot of thinking to go with this highly flexible and customizable content management system for any type of website you intend to create. But what does require a lot more careful consideration is the web hosting service you’re going to use for your WP website, and that’s what this article is all about.
If you are tired of seeing the same old, oversold hosts on most review sites, this might just be the right place for you to discover some of the truly outstanding companies that may have been hidden from you in case you didn’t dig deep enough.
Without any further ado, the following are seven of the best WordPress hosting providers that are worth checking out this year.
Quick List: Top WP Hosts
ScalaHosting — Best all-around for professional sites
KnownHost — Best managed WP hosting for beginners
Rocket — Fastest managed WordPress for small business
ChemiCloud — Extra helpful support team
HostArmada — Best built-in security features
Krystal — Best UK-based provider
Ethernet Servers — Best budget plans
Let’s have a closer look at each of these companies and discuss their main pros and cons.
1. ScalaHosting: Best all-around for professional sites
ScalaHosting offers solid shared and VPS hosting services, but it’s the latter that they really stand out for. If you have an established business site or just launching a new one, you should seriously consider getting a VPS from these guys. They have customizable and scalable plans that suit any website of any size.
If you are starting small, you probably want to go with one of the shared WordPress hosting plans they offer, which come with plenty of resources. But if you want a more powerful solution, their managed VPS service with the LiteSpeed web server (add-on) would be a great choice. This also comes with the option to use their own free SPanel control panel instead of cPanel.
As for technical support, ScalaHosting’s 24/7 live chat team does an excellent job at providing quick answers and solutions to any technical issues you may be facing. While senior engineers may only be available during business hours, you will always find someone via live chat to handle urgent requests no matter what time of the day it is.
Pros
- Solid infrastructure with fast SSD storage
- Free domain for the first year
- Free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Daily remote backups
- 1-click WordPress installation
- 99.9% uptime guarantee
- Responsive live chat support
Cons
- Monthly billing only available for VPS
- Phone support is only for sales
Pricing
The entry-level WP Mini plan costs $9.95 per month with annual billing. A discounted price of $6.95 per month applies to the first invoice only. Automatic discounts are applied to biennial and triennial billing cycles.
Visit the official ScalaHosting website to learn more!
2. KnownHost: Best managed WP hosting for beginners
KnownHost is a highly reputable company among the webmaster community with plenty of positive experiences shared by real users on Reddit, Web Hosting Talk, and other community/social sites. They have several types of hosting services including regular shared plans, managed WordPress, VPS, cloud, and dedicated servers.
The managed WP option is perfect for beginners as most of the technical aspects of installing, updating and securing WordPress are taken care of by the support team. Their servers are powered by the LiteSpeed web server, which results in significant improvement in performance and loading speed when used alongside the free LS Cache plugin. Advanced security scanning and protection by Imunify360 is provided for free.
And one of the top reasons to choose this company is their professional support team that is based in the US. This is something a lot of their customers appreciate, especially those who have had frustrating experiences with the typical outsourced, poorly-trained support agents that other “popular” hosts have.
Pros
- Managed WordPress hosting
- Fast LiteSpeed server and cache
- Free SSL certificate (Let’s Encrypt)
- Malware and DDoS protection
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Staging environment
- 99.99% uptime
- Expert 24/7 US-based support
Cons
- No free domain name
- Live chat not always available
Pricing
The entry-level plan costs $11.95 per month. You get a one-time 50% discount if you sign up for a yearly billing term.
Visit the official KnownHost website to learn more!
3. Rocket: Fastest managed WordPress for small business
Rocket isn’t one of those gigantic “anything goes” hosting companies, but rather a fully managed WordPress hosting platform that is exclusively built and optimized for this content management system. Because they only host WordPress sites, they’ve fine-tuned their servers to provide optimal performance, speed, and security right out of the box.
If you’re looking for super-fast WordPress hosting, Rocket’s Edge network with the build-in Cloudflare Enterprise CDN offers you one of the fastest solutions you’ll ever find. And the support team is just as impressive with their quick responses and helpfulness. Even the CEO of the company himself can sometimes get involved with answering live chat requests.
On the downside, they don’t currently offer email hosting, so if you’d like to create custom email addresses for your domain name, you’ll have to use a third-party email service, such as Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Zoho, etc. You’ll also have to use a third-party DNS service since they don’t offer DNS services either.
This premium solution is mainly targeted at small business, e-commerce, and agency sites that receive a substantial amount of traffic. If you only have a small blog/site, you probably want to consider another more affordable provider since this one may be an overkill.
Pros
- Fully managed WordPress hosting
- Fast global network (20+ locations)
- Built-in Cloudflare Enterprise CDN
- Real-time malware protection
- Website firewall
- Automatic daily backups
- Staging sites
- Transparent company
- Excellent 24/7 live chat support
Cons
- Not for those on a tight budget
- No DNS services
- No email services
Pricing
The Starter plan costs $30 per month and includes 10 GB disk space and 50 GB bandwidth. Discounts are automatically applied to annual billing terms. All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Visit the official Rocket website to learn more!
4. ChemiCloud: Extra helpful support team
ChemiCloud may not have been in business for as long as some of the other big names in the industry, but they’ve steadily built a reputation as one of the most reliable web hosting providers out there. They particularly appeal to beginners who have limited technical skills because of their extremely helpful and friendly support team.
Their shared hosting plans include generous resources, advanced security protection, free backups, and the premium LiteSpeed web server. The redundant cloud infrastructure they utilize comes with a 99.99% uptime guarantee and proactive server monitoring to ensure optimal performance.
Pros
- Fast servers using LiteSpeed
- Cloud technology with 99.99% uptime
- Free domain for first year
- Account isolation
- Daily backups
- Network firewall and monitoring
- Multiple server locations
- Friendly live chat support
Cons
- No discounts on monthly terms
Pricing
The WordPress Starter plan offers 20 GB SSD storage and costs $12.95 per month. If you pay annually, you get a 50% one-time discount on the first invoice.
Visit the official ChemiCloud website to learn more!
5. HostArmada: Best built-in security features
HostArmada is another trustworthy company you don’t often hear much about on review sites, not because they aren’t worth a mention (they sure are), but because they don’t engage in aggressive affiliate marketing campaigns like many of their competitors do. They seem more focused on maintaining a stable and secure hosting environment, and they do a great job at that.
The WordPress plans by HostArmada are powered by highly available cloud technology and fast SSD storage. Each plan includes comprehensive real-time security protection by Imunify360 at no extra cost.
The high-end plan (Speed Reaper) comes with the LiteSpeed web server, dynamic caching, and increased server resources (RAM and CPU), making it a very decent choice for small business sites. If you have a large e-commerce store and need something more powerful with dedicated server resources, they also have outstanding cloud VPS services.
Pros
- Cloud servers with ample resources
- Free domain for one year
- Malware scanning and removal
- Security firewalls
- Static and dynamic caching
- Daily offsite backups
- Different server locations
- Knowledgeable support team
Cons
- No money-back guarantee for monthly billing
Pricing
Plans start from $12.95 per month with 15 GB SSD disk space in the Start Dock plan. Their regular one-time discount offerings can save you a considerable amount of money if you choose an annual, biennial or triennial billing cycle.
Visit the official HostArmada website to learn more!
6. Krystal: Best UK-based provider
Krystal is one of the most professional web hosting companies in the UK, with managed WordPress hosting being one of their main strengths. Most of their customers are apparently from the UK, but they also accept customers from Europe, North America, and a few other locations.
With a robust cloud infrastructure and fast NVMe SSD storage, Krystal’s managed WP solution is highly recommended for small business websites that receive a considerable number of visitors. They do have normal shared hosting plans, but the managed WP option comes with everything fully configured and ready to go right away.
Pros
- Fast and redundant cloud servers
- NVMe SSD storage
- Daily and hourly backups
- Staging environment
- DDoS protection
- 99.99% uptime guarantee
- Skilled UK-based support team
Cons
- Email is a paid add-on
- Managed WP only available in UK data center
- Not open to all countries
Pricing
The Personal plan costs £17.99 per month (including VAT) and it’s good for one or two websites that receive up to about 20K monthly visitors.
Visit the official Krystal website to learn more!
7. Ethernet Servers: Best budget plans
If your quest is for a relatively cheap hosting service that is reliable and comes with excellent technical support, you won’t find many companies that do it better than Ethernet Servers! This is another UK-based company, but you can pick from seven worldwide server locations that include the USA, UK, Germany, France, and others.
Their NVMe SSD-powered servers run the CloudLinux OS with LiteSpeed, in addition to full account isolation by CageFS and real-time malware protection by Imunify360. On top of that, their around-the-clock support service is simply amazing at quickly responding and fixing issues.
You won’t likely get a better service elsewhere at such a low price, so if you’re starting out with a small budget, this is one of the best places to consider hosting your website with.
Pros
- Cheap and reliable shared hosting
- Super fast NVMe SSD storage
- LiteSpeed web server and cache
- Free SSL certificate
- Full account isolation
- Premium malware protection
- Multiple payment options
- Quick and helpful support team
Cons
- No managed WordPress plans
- Site design is a little outdated
Pricing
The Silver plan costs $2.95 per month and provides 15 GB SSD storage. If you pay annually, the price becomes $2.51 per month or about $30 per year.
Visit the official Ethernet Servers website to learn more!
What to Look For in a WordPress Hosting Service
Trying to settle on one web hosting company can be a tedious task with so many options out there, each of which claiming to be the best. There are some general factors that you should keep in mind while sifting through different providers in order to narrow down your choices and eventually pick the most suitable service.
The following are a few of the most crucial criteria to consider when searching for a host for your WordPress website.
Cloud infrastructure: Cloud computing is the future and most modern web hosts build their services on cloud technology. The high availability, redundancy, flexibility, and scalability of cloud servers make it imperative for professional website owners to seek this type of hosting.
Uptime guarantee: Frequent downtime isn’t only frustrating for the site’s owner and visitors, it can also negatively impact search engine rankings. Any company that doesn’t give you an uptime guarantee of at least 99.9% isn’t worth your time and money these days! And with the help of a content delivery network (CDN), you can expect 100% guaranteed uptime.
Fast storage: As websites become more complex and dynamic, the speed at which data is read from and written to the server’s storage device can have a dramatic impact on the website’s loading speed. HDD storage won’t quite cut it if you want to stay competitive in terms of user experience. Opt for the much faster SSD storage, or better, NVMe-based SSD.
Server caching: Properly configured server-level caching systems can significantly reduce the load on your server’s precious resources and result in noticeably faster loading of your website’s content. The LiteSpeed web server offers a big advantage in this regard with the help of its free WP-optimized caching plugin.
Automatic backups: The importance of keeping daily backups of your website’s files and databases cannot be overstated. A simple glitch in the hardware or software of your server, or an unintended human mistake can wreak havoc on your website. It is critical that your hosting service includes automatic daily backups with the ability to instantly restore your site to a recent backup point.
Security: There are different measures and tools that can be implemented at the network level, server level, and website level to ensure optimal security. Features such as a firewall, malware scanning and removal, DDoS protection, brute force protection, and others are quite standard with managed hosting services. Some companies also provide custom WordPress-specific security enhancements.
Support service: Almost every company nowadays boasts about their 24/7 technical support service, but there are two key questions to ask here: Is it really 24/7 or is that just a marketing cliche, and, how helpful is their support team? Try to contact them outside of their normal business hours with some highly technical questions to see how quickly and how thoroughly they answer.
The Benefits of Managed WordPress Hosting
There has been increasing demand for managed WordPress hosting in recent years as opposed to normal shared hosting. There are a few advantages that a managed service offers, but it’s important to note that this term is used loosely and so the specific features you get may greatly vary from one company to another.
Generally speaking, most of the technical aspects of installing, updating, securing, and optimizing the performance of a WordPress site will be handled by the company when you go with a managed plan. This usually also comes with hands-on technical support that involves fixing various issues related to WordPress (code, plugins, themes, etc.)
Managed WP is an ideal choice for beginners who lack the technical knowledge to install and maintain the system on their own, as well as small business owners who prefer to spend their time on growing their business rather than worrying about routine technical tasks.
On the negative side, managed platforms often have certain restrictions on server access and the ability to make changes to specific server systems or configurations. It’s also more costly than normal hosting, which is why many price-conscious and tech-savvy users shy away from it.
Developers and experienced webmasters may not mind spending some extra time doing the technical tasks themselves, so a lot of them usually prefer the more cost-effective option of normal shared or VPS hosting. If you are interested in growing your skills while learning how to do things on your own, you probably want to do the same. Ultimately, it’s a matter of priorities and determining what’s more important to you and your project.
Disclaimer: This branded story was provided by Geeky Way. Some of the links in the post above are affiliate links, which may result in a commission paid to the author at no additional cost to you. All opinions expressed herein are those of the author and were not paid for by any of the mentioned companies. Your support is much appreciated and helps us continue researching and creating useful content for website owners.
