A Guide To Choosing The Right WordPress Hosting


This article was updated on August 10th, 2016 at 09:52 pm

WordPress is taking over the world, one blog at a time.

It is the number one CMS (Content Management System) choice for websites big and small. It powers some of the biggest & popular brands on the internet today, like The New Yorker, Sony Music, BBC, EBay and Best Buy to name a few.

You have magazines, blogs, e-commerce and artist portfolio sites in there. So it’s obvious. If you want to start a blog or a website on your own, WordPress is the way to go, right? Well, not so easy. Though WordPress is popular, easy to install & manage, it has its bad sides too. It’s a memory hog and unless supported by a good hosting platform can throw a lot of glitches.

This is where Managed WordPress Hosting step in. They provide easy to manage, secure, fast and optimized WordPress hosting that works pretty much like plug and play. Based on what your requirements are, there are different types of WordPress Managed hosting available today.

In this article, we’ll take a deep look into what are the best WordPress hosts out there, that can help you host a smooth running WordPress website. We’ll test their technical features, reliability, support to name a few things.

In a hurry? Jump to the comparison table here.

To find the right WordPress host for you, find out what kind of traffic you have right now, and how much it will grow.
Who is this guide for?
  • People already running WordPress websites, but have issues and are looking to move to better hosts.
  • Bloggers getting started with WordPress & looking for a reliable hosting solution.
  • Small businesses looking to create their websites on WordPress.
  • High traffic websites running on WordPress looking for easier hosting solutions.
  • Developers looking for WordPress hosting services.

Why do you need Managed WordPress hosting in the first place?

Why not shared hosting?

Shared hosting has been the most popular option with webmasters for the longest time on the internet. Why? Because it was cheap and getting started was easy. Hand coded HTML was cool. There were fewer server down times. Social media wasn’t even a thing and DDOS attacks were unheard of. You get the point, don’t you?

Source. It’s a thing of the past. Does it work? Sure, it does. But it isn’t built for the internet of today. It is something we all will one day grow out of. (But if you just got a couple of HTML static pages in there, that’s your best bet.)

Why WordPress Hosting?
  • Easy to get started – WordPress comes pre-installed with one-click installation.
  • Secure & Easy to manage – Auto updates, backups etc.
  • Better resources, faster servers – Make your site load faster.
  • Built for more traffic, more visitors & bandwidth.

Comparing The Best Managed WordPress Hosting Companies

WordPress Hosting (popularly known as WordPress Managed Hosting) is different from traditional shared hosting in that, everything on this hosting plan is optimized for WordPress. It comes pre-installed with WordPress and with a click of a button (quite literally) you could have your website launched. You also have all the flexibility of WordPress, that is, you could have as many themes and plugins as possible, that would customize your website to your needs.

Today, there are many companies offering managed WordPress hosting, including traditional hosting companies like DreamHost and Media Temple. But  other companies, such as Pagely, WP Engine and Pressable, base their entire business models on managing dedicated WordPress installations. In this guide, we will look at some of the most important (actually, all) features these hosts boast about.

WordPress_Hosting_Companies_Comparison

Source

There are essentially four types of WordPress hosting companies. Support centric, Developer centric, Cost centric or Scale centric. Selecting a WordPress host should be based on what your objective is. Ask yourself, whether you want a cheap and support focused host or a high volume, scale centric host. For each requirement, there are hosts available. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the different WordPress hosting companies out there and what they offers.

Pagely_WordPress_Hosting_Logo

Pagely WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for enterprises & high profile brands.
  2. Enterprise grade security, super fast servers.
  3. Developer friendly, knowledgeable staff.
  4. Pretty Expensive.
96%

Pagely WordPress Hosting is something you hope your website will grow up to, someday. It’s got the best of everything, which is why many Fortune 500 brands are with them. They win the Managed WordPress hosting game hands down with top rated features and superior technology, but it does come at a price.

WPEngine_WordPress_Hosting_Logo

WP Engine WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for large publishers/high traffic sites.
  2. Top notch security, amazing tech, fast servers.
  3. Great support, knowledgeable staff.
  4. Could get expensive with overage charges.
89%

WP Engine is great for developers, designers, small businesses, high traffic websites and folks paranoid about security. Although expensive, when compared to other hosts, WP Engine packs a lot of value in to their hosting packages including top notch security, optimized environment, great resources and a knowledgeable team.

Synthesis_WordPress_Hosting_Logo

Synthesis WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for marketing agencies/blogs.
  2. Affordable plans but limited growth.
  3. Amazing tech, fast servers, marketing tools.
  4. Great support.
82%

Synthesis WordPress hosting is built for content marketers and small businesses. With great tech to support, you can get fast loading pages but with less room to grow. If you are focused on one or two websites, then this is the plan for you. Prices are affordable as well.

SiteGround_WordPress_Hosting_Logo

SiteGround WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for high traffic, growing websites.
  2. Affordable plans with plenty of room for growth.
  3. Amazing tech, out of the box.
  4. Knowledgeable staff & Exceptional support.
87%

SiteGround’s WordPress hosting is built for small and big websites alike. They have amazing tech backing up their servers that performs amazingly well in high stress conditions. With unlimited websites and bandwidth, SiteGround’s plans pack a whole lot of punch in direct comparison with other companies.

bluehost

BlueHost WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for young bloggers starting out.
  2. Affordable hosting plans, good tech, fast servers.
  3. Good support, users communities.
  4. Upgrades can get expensive.
72%

Bluehost is probably the most popular WordPress hosting provider among bloggers today. Bluehost is built for small teams and young bloggers. It’s a great point of entry for those starting out their blogging journey. Their security isn’t as amazing as WP Engine, but they provides a lot of feature for the price.

GoDaddy-WordPress-Hosting

GoDaddy WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Great for beginners.
  2. Very affordable plans, easy to get started.
  3. Decent performance, good server.
  4. Great support, but WP hosting isn’t their forte.
70%

GoDaddy’s WordPress hosting is great for beginners. WordPress hosting isn’t GoDaddy’s forte, but they kill it with affordable offers and great support. Everything about GoDaddy is mainstream and they do not go in-depth like Page.ly or SiteGround. Do they have affordable prices? Yes. Do they have good managed WordPress hosting? Yes. But do they do it exceptionally well? No.

Leading WordPress Hosting Plans Comparison

 


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Factor 1: Site Speed – Which WordPress hosting is fastest?

The Site Speed reports show how quickly users are able to see and interact with content.— Google

Site speed can be defined as the speed at which a website/webpage loads in the browser. It today’s world, it defines whether or not a website is usable. Google has publicly declared that it is one of the factors they consider while deciding whether or not to show a website on its search results.

Source – Google Webmaster Guidelines

Time to First Byte correlation with better search ranking

Studies have shown that the Time to First Byte is correlated with higher rankings. So it’s important to consider this when you’re trying to find the right hosting company. Luckily, WP Hosting Hub has provided the data for the TTFB for several popular hosting companies. Here are the results.

Time_to_first_byte

Tested over a 20 day period using a page size of 1.6MB (just under the average size of a web page) we can see that if you’re interested in higher rankings in Google then A2 Hosting and SiteGround would be your best solutions out of the companies test.

What factors influence a fast server response?
  • The lower the count of your server response time, the higher the page loading speed you will have.
  • As per Google page-speed insight recommendations, optimal server response time should be under 200 ms.
  • Too much web traffic (ex: social media shares) dramatically slows down access to a website.
  • Insufficient server resources (i.e., memory, disk space, bandwidth, processes).
  • Number of websites hosted on the server.

On WordPress, page load time is affected by factors such as, Number of widgets used, Ads and affiliate codes used, Theme design issues, Bad coding, Hi-res image use, Number of plugins used etc.

So, there is a delicate balance between how popular your host is and how much resources your website is allocated. For a hosting company that is hugely popular, unless they have restrictions on how many websites can be hosted on a server (the more generous, the uglier it gets), your websites might actually be risking it being on those servers (even if the resources allocated looks great on paper). This is the reason why some of the dedicated WordPress hosting providers put a limit on how many websites can be hosted on a single server. Having said that server response time is only one among the many factors that affect page load time.

Server response time is only one contributing factor to page load times. Rest is dependent on your theme & other settings.

Experiments were done to test page load time of each managed WordPress hosting service, and the fastest page load times were achieved by the following hosts.
(Source 1, Source 2)

WordPress Managed Hosting Compared by Average Page Load Times
  • Pagely – .09 Seconds (Very Fast)
  • WP Engine – .26 Seconds (Fast)
  • Site Ground – .41 Seconds (Fast)
  • GoDaddy – .52 microseconds (Satisfactory)
  • Dream Host – .93 Seconds (Average)
  • Blue Host – .93 Seconds (Average)
  • Host Gator – .93 Seconds (Average)

Factor 2: Load Testing – Which WordPress Hosting can handle high traffic?

Load testing is the process of putting demand on a software system or computing device and measuring its response. Load testing is performed to determine a system’s behavior under both normal and anticipated peak load conditions.— Wikipedia

Think of it like this. You are an ice cream shop and there is one kid at your doorstep ordering an ice cream. You give him the ice cream. You’re cool, the kid is cool.

Now, imagine it’s weekend and the entire neighbor hood is flocking at your doorstep for some reason. You have 23 people lined up at your shop – each wanting a different ice cream.
How would you cope up? How long would each person have to wait?

Now imagine your website to be you and your shop and people lining up for ice cream, your visitors. Would your website buckle under pressure or would it remain cool?

Source – Wikipedia

Here are the results of the experiment.

WordPress Hosting Comparison - Siteground

WordPress Managed Hosting Compared by Server Response Times
  • InMotion Hosting – 478 Milliseconds (Min), 836 Milliseconds (Max)
  • Site Ground – 669 Milliseconds (Min), 1.79 Seconds (Max)
  • Site5 – 704 Milliseconds (Min), 1.95 Seconds (Max)
  • Dream Host – 621 Milliseconds (Min), 3.74 Seconds (Max)
  • GoDaddy – 483 Milliseconds (Min), 4.1 Seconds (Max)
  • Media Temple – 934 Milliseconds (Min), 4.54 Seconds (Max)
  • Blue Host – 915 Milliseconds (Min), 10.64 Seconds (Max)
  • Host Gator – 258 Milliseconds (Min), 10.16 Seconds (Max)

Factor 3: Stress Test – Which WordPress Hosting is reliable?

Another factor that is similar to load testing is Stress test. It could mean different things depending on what you are putting under the test. In this case, Webmatros did a comparison stress test on all the leading Managed WordPress hosts by automating the process of post creation. They used a plugin that would create posts in large numbers on the WordPress platform and monitor the performance. This test was done because, it is one of the best methods to see how strong the resources were on the server. A plugin was used which would create posts by hundreds every minute until the server got stuck.

WordPress Managed Hosting Compared by Server Stress Time
  • WP Engine Avg Server Response Time – 839 ms
  • Synthesis Avg Server Response Time – 834 ms
  • Flywheel Avg Server Response Time – 1.418 ms
  • Media Temple Avg Server Response Time – 1.455 ms

Flywheel did an amazing job coping up with the stress but others, well… not so well. You can read the full experiment here.

Factor 4: Security – Which WordPress Hosting is most secure?

Security and updates is a big factor for WordPress. No doubt WordPress is easy to update and is secure but, if you are running a complex website, with plugins, modifications and child themes, then updating WordPress can be a pain. Here’s how it works. Typically, WordPress keeps updating its files whenever there are core security updates and patches, so it’s really important if the host itself will keep you updated. Good hosts will keep updating their WordPress versions whenever there’s a security patch or update available. For others, you are at risk of your core WordPress files remain non-updated.

When most WordPress hosts boasts of automatic upgrades and backups, only two Managed WordPres hosts go further to take security seriously. Pagely and WP Engine. Pagely, is an enterprise level product that hosts several big brands like Facebook and Twitter and they have their own proprietary security mechanisms. They don’t reveal everything about what’s under the hood, but it appears to be a custom secure protocol that they’ve deployed. Security breach instances for Pagely have been unheard of. WP Engine on the other hand, have had some security breaches in the past. News source 1, News source 2. And they have stepped up their game ever since.

Pagely
  • Automated backups.
  • AWS servers
  • Malware scanning.
  • Administrator 2-factor authentication.
  • Comment spam prevention.
  • Sucuri protection.
  • Brute force mitigation and Rate Limiting.
  • DoS/DDoS Mitigation.
  • Web Application FireWalls.
  • Automatic WordPress Upgrades.
WP Engine
  • Disk write protection.
  • Disk write limitations.
  • Script protection.
  • Plugins disallowed.
  • Automatic updates.
  • In-house virus scans.
  • External penetration tests.
  • Encrypted backup media.
  • Background screening for employees.
  • Annual SAS 70 Type II examinations.

Factor 5: Data & Bandwidth – Which WordPress Hosting offers more bandwidth?

Bandwidth of a website can be defined as the actual amount of data transferred through the website at one time. If you have lesser bandwidth, it will slower the speed of your website, pretty significantly. Therefore, it is important to have enough bandwidth available so that should you get a sudden, unexpected spike in traffic sometime, your host can manage it.

Managed WordPress Hosting Offering Unlimited Bandwidth
  • FlyWheel – 2 TB Bandwidth ($100/m plan)
  • SiteGround – Unlimited (All plans)
  • Pagely – 25 GB ($100/m plan)
  • WP Engine – Unlimited (Overage charges)
  • BlueHost – Unmetered
  • GoDaddy – Unlimited Bandwidth

For example, if you had three 10k images on your page and a 2k HTML file, you would have 32k of data on that page. Multiply that by your expected page views (let’s say 100,000 per month), and you get 3.2G of data to be transferred that month for that page.

Source: Sitepoint – Bandwidth Introduction by Adam Eisner

There is even a hosting bandwidth calculator plugin for WordPress that will let you calculate how much bandwidth you need for your current site.

Factor 6: Scalability – No: of Websites & Domain Names Allowed

Make sure your WordPress host has unlimited (or more than one) databases and domain names.

According to Chris Pearson, Founder of DIY Themes and the famous Thesis Themes, one of the main factors to look into while buying a WordPress host is the number of domain names it would allow for you to have. The more, the merrier. The reason? What happens when you want to expand your business to a new one? Not a good idea if you have to buy a new hosting for each domain you own. It will just add up to all the mess that is already there. Instead, if your WordPress host would allow you to have as many domain names as possible, with the same account and different databases, the better it is.

Which WordPress Hosting allow unlimited domains?
  • WP Engine – 1 – 150 Domain Names.
  • GoDaddy – 1 – 5 Domain Names.
  • Siteground – Unlimited Domain Names.

Factor 7: Backups – Which WordPress Hosting offer better backups?

Daily backups and one click restore features are a must in WordPress Hosts.

Admit it. WordPress websites are not secure. More than 70% of WordPress installations are susceptible to security attacks. WordPress is a popular target among hackers.

The below statistics are are based on 42,106 WordPress websites found in Alexa’s top 1 million websites.

  • 74 different versions of WordPress were identified.
  • 11 of these versions are invalid. For example version 6.6.6.
  • 18 websites had an invalid non existing versions of WordPress.
  • 769 websites (1.82%) are still running a subversion of WordPress 2.0.
  • Only 7,814 websites (18.55%) upgraded to WordPress 3.6.1.
  • 1,785 websites upgraded to version 3.6.1 between the 12th and the 15th of September.
  • 13,034 websites (30.95%) are still running a vulnerable version of WordPress 3.6.

Source – Statistics Show Why WordPress is a Popular Hacker Target by Robert Abela.

Although the WordPress community releases frequent updates and patches to vulnerabilities, a good percentage of WordPress run websites do not stay updated, and hence are vulnerable. Being on a secure managed WordPress platform will help you eliminate this risk as any good host will always keep its WordPress installation up-to-date.

Which WordPress Hosting offer data backups?
  • Pagely – Automatic Backups.
  • WP Engine – Daily Backups.
  • GoDaddy – Hourly Backups.
  • Siteground – Hourly Backups.
  • Flywheel – Daily Backups.

Factor 8: Price – Which Managed WordPress Hosting is best?

Expensive doesn’t always mean better. Choose a hosting that matches your usage patterns.

When it comes to choosing WordPress hosting for your site, although the options aren’t plenty, pricing options are pretty diverse. You have cheap to the super expensive. And expensive doesn’t always mean better. Before getting into pricing, it is very important for one to know what they want. List out your concerns if you are on a hosting plan already. Find out what is unique to your website and what resources you need most. This will help you get a hosting that works just for you.

Questions to ask yourself before choosing a Managed WordPress hosting
  • What is your monthly average traffic volume?
  • How secure do you want your site to be? Does it deal with sensitive data?
  • How good are you with customizing/managing WordPress?

Based on the above questions, there are different hosts that will match your needs. For example, if you are very good with WordPress customization and can deal with installation, changing core files etc, then you don’t need much help with the administration part. If you are a blogger who expects unexpected , sudden spikes of traffic then you need a WordPress host with a lot of scale and elasticity in its resources. At the same time, if you’re a company with just a few portfolio pages that has sensitive information, then you need a super secure host.

Good news is that most managed WordPress hosting gives custom offers that works for your needs.

Best WordPress Hosting for high traffic websites.

So, let’s say you are the next BuzzFeed and your current bandwidth isn’t enough. You might want to move to a managed WordPress hosting with the following features.

What to look for in a WordPress host for high traffic site
  • Elastic/ Unlimited bandwidth – Bandwidth with a lot of room or elastic. What that means is your host should at no point cap your bandwidth. Instead, it should either give you a lot of room ahead (over-booked) or should provide you enough bandwidth as you grow, in a smart way.
  • CDN & Caching – High traffic websites need a CDN network to ensure speedy content delivery. While some hosts encourage using a CDN network, some don’t.

1. WP Engine Managed Hosting Review

I like WP Engine, for their quality of service, expertise and support. But they are expensive and not built for everyone.

WP-Engine-Managed-Hosting WP Engine is one of those well known managed WordPress hosting providers out there you’ll see a lot of people talking about. They’ve done a good job putting together a dedicated hosting solution for WordPress, that is popular. Thanks for their affiliate program, you’ll see many bloggers recommending their products. I’ve hosted some of my websites with them and my experience have been mixed.

The good.

Their customer support is great. Very responsive staff, who know their stuff. I mean, these are hard core WordPress experts there have there. I know many hosting companies boast of having WordPress experts on their team, but in my experience these guys are the best. They are pretty advanced, so expect them to throw jargons at you and recommend stuff like advance settings. And I’m sure this is just my personal experience and should be related to my queries.

The bad.

Second, their security is top notch. Like super duper strong security. These guys have set the standards really high up for the others here (Source). And we’re not just talking about HTTPS and backups here. They go all the way to even ensuring that their employees have extreme background checks done. I don’t know if regular folks need that kind of security but hey, there is nothing as enough security right? Also, while I was with them, they didn’t allow certain plugin on my WordPress installation. Like common ones, WP Super Cache etc were automatically disabled. Which tells a lot about their security, and they also claim that you don’t need a caching plugin installed as their servers are already cache enabled. A bit weird, but I’m sure they know what they’re doing.

The ugly.

Expensive. I’m sure their customers are getting a lot of value from their plans but what didn’t work for me was their “additional charges”. i.e every time my site got a spike in traffic, beyond the set limit of page views & visits, they would charge me more. Sometimes, I ended up paying 5X my regular monthly price. Which was not their fault or anything, but I ended up paying for a lot of StumbleUpon & Reddit spikes. Which sometimes didn’t make any sense for a site that only had irregular traffic surges.

Summary

Overall, I like WP Engine, for their quality of service, expertise and support. But they are expensive and not built for everyone. So, I wouldn’t recommend it just for anyone looking for a managed WordPress hosting.

2. GoDaddy WordPress Hosting Review

GoDaddy is amazing value for money. It’s easy to get started, manage and scale your small business running on WordPress.

GoDaddy WordPress HostingGoDaddy has an interesting product for WordPress managed hosting. Like, they’re into a whole different game. Here’s the thing. I have three of my websites switch from WP Engine to GoDaddy last year and till date, they’re doing amazing. No downtime, no security problems, nothing. Now, if you ask me whether GoDaddy has the best security, WordPress expertise and best servers, I do not know for sure. They have a super-competitive product that blows away competition, but then again, it is too good to be true. I’m not sure what the catch is, but it sure works.

The good.

I’m not sure if I’m talking to a coding expert, but they sure get things done for me. And they’re fun to talk to. Support is fast and responsive, nothing to comment negative about. WordPress hosting works just fine. I’m sure it’s not their expertise, for obvious reasons, but that hasn’t stopped them from offering an amazing product. The best part, it’s super economical and provides generous bandwidth (800,000 monthly visitors). Of course, it is not unlimited bandwidth, but considering that most others aren’t ready to offer unlimited bandwidth, this makes GoDaddy’s offer very attractive. Plus, their overage fees are cheap and you wouldn’t end up paying 5X like in WP Engine’s case.

The bad.

I haven’t heard of any problems with GoDaddy WordPress hosting so far. It’s more of a fear lurking that something might go bad, because of their lack of expertise as compared to other “experts”. But in my experience, it’s just a fear. They have a limitation though. You can only have five WordPress websites installed on one account. If you one more, you buy another account. So if you’re a multi-domain multi-tasker, then GoDaddy might not be for you (unless if you’re buying more accounts from them)

The ugly.

Reputation. GoDaddy is known to be cheap and competitive. They aren’t experts at WordPress, at least that’s not what they want to be known as. And that’s pretty much it.

Summary

Overall, I think GoDaddy is a great vale for money deal if you’re a small time blogger and is pretty OK with WordPress. It’s easy to start off and you have plenty of options to scale. For about $25/month, it’s great value for money you get there.

3. SiteGround WordPress Hosting Review

SiteGround is the hidden gem in WordPress hosting. 
sitegroundSiteGround is one of the hidden gems out there in WordPress hosting. They offer affordable hosting solution but pack in some great features that are only available in premium packages with even the dedicated hosts. Their support is excellent and if you are thinking to switch from your existing WordPress host or scaling up, they have great plans for you.

The good.

Amazing technology that is built to speed up your WordPress site’s speed right out of the box. Even if you don’t get the additional services, you will do a great job optimizing your existing website, speeding it up. It’s also good that they don’t have visitor limitations or bandwidth limitations, there by avoiding hidden charges, something I’ve found to be a problem with WP Engine and other fancy “limited” hosts.

The bad.

They aren’t very developer friendly (at least the published packages) like Pagely. Wish they had more technical specifications on their website about what’s under the hood.

The ugly.

Nothing much to talk about here.

Summary

Overall, I think SiteGround is a hidden gem that many including budding bloggers or existing publishers can make use of.

Best WordPress Hosting for Enterprise Users

 

For big brands and companies who would like to host their sites on WordPress and is looking for a top notch, secure and scalable host, here are my two recommendations.

Pagely_WordPress_Hosting_Logo

Pagely WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for enterprises & high profile brands.
  2. Enterprise grade security, super fast servers.
  3. Developer friendly, knowledgeable staff.
  4. Pretty Expensive.

Get Exclusive Pagely Plans

Pagely WordPress Hosting is something you hope your website will grow up to, someday. It’s got the best of everything, which is why many Fortune 500 brands are with them. They win the Managed WordPress hosting game hands down with top rated features and superior technology, but it does come at a price.

WPEngine_WordPress_Hosting_Logo

WP Engine WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for large publishers/high traffic sites.
  2. Top notch security, amazing tech, fast servers.
  3. Great support, knowledgeable staff.
  4. Could get expensive with overage charges.

Get Exclusive Wp Engine Plans

WP Engine is great for developers, designers, small businesses, high traffic websites and folks paranoid about security. Although expensive, when compared to other hosts, WP Engine packs a lot of value in to their hosting packages including top notch security, optimized environment, great resources and a knowledgeable team.

Best WordPress Hosting for New Bloggers

 

For those of you looking for a WordPress host but are on a budget, even though there aren’t many options, the following two hosts have attractive packages Check it out!

BlueHost_WordPress_Hosting_Logo
BlueHost WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for small scale bloggers on a budget.
  2. Good servers, pre built WordPress environment.
  3. Great user community.
  4. Inexpensive plans.

Get Exclusive BlueHost Plans

BlueHost WordPress Hosting has really low end plans for beginners. It doesn’t have the best servers or amazing caching on there, but it’s a great plan for those looking to start off with managed WordPress platform.

WPEngine_WordPress_Hosting_Logo
SiteGround WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Inexpensive & Packed w/ features.
  2. Secure, fast servers.
  3. Great support, knowledgeable staff.
  4. Great fit for the budget conscious.

Get SiteGround Plans

SiteGround has the best plans in the market. What I like best about them is that even with the lowest plan, they aren’t cutting down on resources or putting unfair limitations on you. If you are on a budget, I will strongly recommend them.

Best WordPress Hosting for Mature Bloggers

 

For big brands and companies who would like to host their sites on WordPress and is looking for a top notch, secure and scalable host, here are my two recommendations.

BlueHost_WordPress_Hosting_Logo

BlueHost WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for bloggers looking to scale.
  2. No limit on websites.
  3. Good support, knowledgeable staff.
  4. Servers & Tech not top notch.

Get Exclusive BlueHost Plans

For bloggers who are having issues with their hosting providers, especially bandwidth and traffic issues, BlueHost is a good solution. It’s not the best solution, that you will stick to for the rest of your life, but is a good immediate solution that you can grow out of.

WPEngine_WordPress_Hosting_Logo

WP Engine WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for large publishers/high traffic sites.
  2. Top notch security, amazing tech, fast servers.
  3. Great support, knowledgeable staff.
  4. Could get expensive with overage charges.

Get Exclusive Wp Engine Plans

WP Engine has little bit of everything for everyone. Their starter plans are great fit for bloggers who wants to move out of their shared hosting and get some room to breathe. Better servers, better page speeds and response times are few things you will get instantly from WP Engine’s low end plans.

Best WordPress Hosting for High Traffic Websites

If you have a high traffic website, you know how important it is to have a scalable WordPress hosting platform. Many WordPress hosting plans have limits, bandwidth limits, CDN limits, visitor limits and what not. Despite having great tech backing up, these limits don’t work for high traffic sites. With that in mind, here are the two best hosts for high traffic websites.

SiteGround_WordPress_Hosting_Logo

SiteGround WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for high traffic, growing websites.
  2. Affordable plans with plenty of room for growth.
  3. Amazing tech, out of the box.
  4. Knowledgeable staff & Exceptional support.

Get Exclusive SiteGround Plans

SiteGround’s WordPress hosting is built for small and big websites alike. They have amazing tech backing up their servers that performs amazingly well in high stress conditions. With unlimited websites and bandwidth, SiteGround’s plans pack a whole lot of punch in direct comparison with other companies.

WPEngine_WordPress_Hosting_Logo

WP Engine WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for large publishers/high traffic sites.
  2. Top notch security, amazing tech, fast servers.
  3. Great support, knowledgeable staff.
  4. Could get expensive with overage charges.

Get Exclusive Wp Engine Plans

WP Engine is great high traffic websites as they have their bandwidth “unmetered”. If you get traffic spikes, they let it go through without caps and bill it in your next cycle, if it’s just a one time thing. If you get one of their mid tier plans, it has enough room for high traffic that should cover you for sudden spikes of traffic.

Best WordPress Hosting for Designers

For designers and agencies who deal with multiple clients and freelancers managing your WordPress sites can be a pain. Luckily, there are WordPress hosting companies that do things just the way you like. They are….

Flywheel_Logo

Flywheel WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for designers and agencies.
  2. Team Collaboration & Billing assistance.
  3. Staging sites with multiple site access.
  4. Might be expensive.

Get Exclusive FlyWheel Plans

FlyWheel is all about ease of use. Whether you are an agency, freelancer or a design studio, FlyWheel will make it easy for you to manage your clients with tools helping you from billing to hosting and team collaboration.

WPEngine_WordPress_Hosting_Logo

WP Engine WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for large publishers/high traffic sites.
  2. Top notch security, amazing tech, fast servers.
  3. Great support, knowledgeable staff.
  4. Could get expensive with overage charges.

Get Exclusive Wp Engine Plans

WP Engine is great for developers, designers, small businesses, high traffic websites and folks paranoid about security. Although expensive, when compared to other hosts, WP Engine packs a lot of value in to their hosting packages including top notch security, optimized environment, great resources and a knowledgeable team.

Best WordPress Hosting for Developers

For developers and coders who wants in-depth file access and control, there are only two main hosting options. They are…

Pagely_WordPress_Hosting_Logo
Pagely WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for enterprises & high profile brands.
  2. Enterprise grade security, super fast servers.
  3. Developer friendly, knowledgeable staff.
  4. Pretty Expensive.

Get Exclusive Pagely Plans

Pagely WordPress Hosting is something you hope your website will grow up to, someday. It is the only WordPress Hosting service that I know of, which has its entire infrastructure on Amazon Web Services. Pagely can provide you the fastest page loading times and fastest server response times, hands down. With top notch security, GIT/SVN and WP-CLI, it is truly the most developer friendly and most scalable managed WordPress hosting out there.

WPEngine_WordPress_Hosting_Logo
WP Engine WordPress Hosting Review
  1. Ideal for large publishers/high traffic sites.
  2. Top notch security, amazing tech, fast servers.
  3. Great support, knowledgeable staff.
  4. Could get expensive with overage charges.

Get Exclusive Wp Engine Plans

WP Engine is great for developers, designers, small businesses, high traffic websites and folks paranoid about security. Although expensive, when compared to other hosts, WP Engine packs a lot of value in to their hosting packages including top notch security, optimized environment, great resources and a knowledgeable team. Although they had security issues once, they have stepped up their game and offers developer friendly features in their top tier plan.

References:

Important features to look for in a web host by Andrew Burgess

Things you must know before buying a WordPress host by Chris Pearson

Managed WordPress Hosting Showdown by Kevin Ohashi

The Definitive Guide to WordPress Security by Sam McRoberts

40 Big Name Brands That Are Using WordPress

Amazing WordPress Theme


I can talk about Marketing and SEO all day long. Passionate about blogging, SEO & Online marketing. Perpetual learner.