There are plenty of web hosts around to choose from, and new ones appear all the time. And although greater competition results in better services at lower prices, this abundance of choice compounds the problem of choosing the right host to fit your specific needs. The challenge is even greater for WordPress users, who need a provider that understands their particular requirements.
To tackle this issue, we rounded up seven of the best-known WordPress hosts and took an in-depth look at each. These hosts offer something that most don’t: WordPress-specific hosting and everything that entails.
Before we get into the reviews, we’ll first take a moment to discuss exactly why you should choose a web host with WordPress-specific experience. Then, we’ll dissect each host, with the main focus on support and security features, performance, and pricing.
WordPress Hosting vs. Shared Hosting – The Key Differences
You may have noticed that many web hosts offer general shared hosting plans and WordPress hosting plans. These are two very different things. To illustrate why, let’s walk through their differences one by one:
- When you get shared hosting, you’re paying for a set amount of space within a server. You have the freedom to install any Content Management System (CMS) you want, but performance will never be as good as say a dedicated server (i.e. one that is reserved for your use only).
- With WordPress-specific hosting, you’re usually paying for space within less crowded servers. Each of these servers is optimized to provide you with a better WordPress experience right out of the box.
- WordPress-specific hosting often includes security measures tailored for the CMS.
- WordPress-friendly hosts are more knowledgeable when it comes to the CMS, so they offer better support.
- Web hosts optimized for WordPress often offer better loading speeds.
- Often, WordPress hosts also take care of backups for you, which is a huge load off your shoulders
These days, there’s arguably no good reason for a WordPress user to opt for regular shared hosting. WordPress hosting plans usually start at competitive prices, so they’re the best choice – even if you’re on a tight budget.
Our Methods for Choosing and Evaluating the Best WordPress Hosts
Each of the web hosts we’ve chosen for this roundup are very well-known in the WordPress hosting industry, but we didn’t want to base our comparison on reputation alone. To be as thorough as possible, we went through the following process with all seven of them:
- We set up paid WordPress hosting accounts for each company.
- Some of these web hosts come with WordPress pre-installed, but for those that didn’t, we did it ourselves.
- Once our site was ready, we contacted each web host’s support team and evaluated their staff with questions about WordPress security.
- We tested each website’s speed using Load Impact. This tool enables us to test
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This article was written by John Hughes and originally published on WPKube.