How to Choose the Best Wordpress Hosting in 2018 (Compared)

• Updated on: 2018-09-20
• Read original article here

Now after browsing through the top WordPress hosting companies listed above, you might still be wondering which one is best for your business?

To help you choose the best WordPress hosting, we have created few additional resources for you:

Our goal is to help you make the right decision because choosing the wrong provider can have a negative impact on your website SEO, speed, and sales.

It’s quite easy to get overwhelmed with all the information overload. Often users read this guide, and email us asking for personalized recommendation on which WordPress hosting is best for their needs.

To help expedite this, we have created a WordPress hosting recommendation engine that can help you decide which is the best WordPress hosting for you based on your needs.

All you have to do is accurately answer the questions in the widget below:

If you still want personalized help in choosing the best WordPress hosting provider, then please send us a message using our contact form. One of our team members will respond within 24 hours.

One of the reasons why WPBeginner is the most trusted WordPress resource site is because our reviews are based on actual data and experience.

Unlike other WordPress hosting review sites who just steal words straight from press-releases of respective hosting companies, we actually sign up with each individual WordPress hosting provider and thoroughly test their services.

We use independent third-party tools like Pingdom, LoadImpact, and Bitcatcha to test the performance and reliability of each company, so we can help you choose the best WordPress hosting for your business.

To accurately measure performance across all WordPress hosting companies, we create a sample WordPress site on each hosting provider and install the default Twenty Seventeen theme. Next, we import dummy content including images and media so our test resembles an average user website.

After that, we use Pingdom, an industry leading website speed test service, to measure our sample website speed across multiple hosting companies.

We also use Load Impact service to send virtual users (VU) to each website to see how the hosting server would handle increased requests from multiple connections at once. This helps us see how the individual WordPress hosting company would perform during peak traffic times.

Last but not least, we use Bitcatcha service to test server response times across numerous geographical locations including United States, London, Singapore, Sao Paulo, India, Sydney, and Japan. This helps us decide which hosting company is best for which geographical location.

Now that you know our test process, let’s compare the performance of the best WordPress hosting companies.

Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies on the planet, and they are an official WordPress recommended hosting provider.

Here are the results from our Bluehost performance tests:

As you can see, our test site loaded in less than two seconds. That’s faster than 85% of all tested websites. Considering the fact that our sample website wasn’t using any caching plugins or speed optimization tips, this result is very good.

After the speed test, we ran the Load Impact test on Bluehost servers. We gradually built up to 100 unique visitors at once to see how the server would handle increased requests from multiple connections at once.

Here is the result screenshot:

The blue line is the number of active virtual users on the site, and the green line is the server load time. As you can see the server load remained stable through out the test even at peak traffic.

After the load impact test, we used Bitcatcha to test more accurate server response time from various geographical locations.

The Bluehost server performed exceptionally well in the United States loading under a fraction of a second. In other locations, response was a bit higher but still under less than a second.

If your target audience is in the United States, then this would hugely benefit your website.

In our detailed Bluehost review, we also evaluated their customer support, features, and pricing. After our analysis, we rate Bluehost as the #1 WordPress hosting provider for small businesses to make a website.

HostGator is a popular web hosting company that hosts over 8 million domains. WPBeginner website is hosted on HostGator dedicated servers, and we have been using them since 2007 for our various websites.

Here are the results from our HostGator performance tests:

As you can see, our test site loaded in just under a second for a server in Dallas, Texas. That’s faster than 94% of all tested sites. Considering the fact that our sample website wasn’t using any caching plugins or speed optimization tips, this result is amazing.

But how does HostGator perform when you have a lot of traffic?

We ran the Load Impact test on HostGator servers where we gradually built up to 100 unique visitors at once to see how the server would handle increased requests from multiple connections at once.

The green line represents page load time and the blue line represents number of users on the site. As you can see, our test site performed really well up to 80 users, after that it started to slow down.

These results are normal for shared hosting accounts because you share server resources with other sites hosted on the same server. As your site grows, you need to move up to VPS hosting or even managed WordPress hosting.

After the load impact test, we used Bitcatcha to test more accurate server response time from various geographical locations.

The HostGator review site server performed really well. The server response time remained less than a second. In the United States, it was merely 37 ms.

In our detailed HostGator review, we also evaluated their customer support, features, and pricing. After our analysis, we find HostGator to be a great option for growing businesses because they offer plans that grow with your business.

SiteGround is one of the most popular and highest rated hosting provider in the WordPress community. They provide unique in-house speed and security solutions which is why they’re an official WordPress recommended hosting provider.

Here are the results from our SiteGround performance tests:

As you can see, our test site loaded in less than a second (649 ms to be precise) for a server in Dallas, Texas. That means our site is faster than 95% of tested sites.

Next, we ran the Load Impact test on SiteGround servers where we gradually built up to 100 unique visitors at once to see how their server would handle increased requests from multiple connections at once.

The blue line is the number of active virtual users on the site, and the green line is the server load time. SiteGround performed almost consistently except for a spike when there were 50 users on the site. It quickly recovered and page load time remained steadily low even with more users.

After the load impact test, we used Bitcatcha to test more accurate server response time from various geographical locations.

Our SiteGround test site server performed really well in the United States and all other locations with the exception of Japan.

If your audience is in Asia, then you can ask SiteGround to move you to their Asia-Pacific servers to remedy this.

In our detailed SiteGround review, we also evaluated their customer support, features, and pricing. After our analysis, we find SiteGround to be a great option for beginners because their support is incredibly helpful.

InMotion hosting has been a well-known industry brand with reliable performance for business class hosting. They offer award-winning 24/7 U.S. based support.

Here are the results from our InMotion hosting performance tests:

As you can see our test site loaded in just under a second for a server in Dallas, Texas. That’s faster than 90% of all tested sites.

Since the test above only measures the load time with single user on the site, we used Load Impact to test how InMotion hosting servers would perform during peak traffic hours.

We gradually built up to 100 unique visitors at once to see how their server would handle increased requests from multiple connections at once.

As you can see that our test site performed well until it reached 25 users. After that it slowed down as traffic kept increasing.

This is normal for shared hosting where your website shares resources with other websites hosted on the same server. But some hosts do a better job of resource allocation than others.

After the load impact test, we used Bitcatcha to test more accurate server response time from various geographical locations.

For all locations, InMotion Hosting responded under a second. The response time was slightly higher for locations in Japan, Brazil, and Australia.

If your websites’ target audience is in the United States and/or United Kingdom, InMotion Hosting is a fast and reliable host. If your target audience is located outside these regions, then you might benefit from finding a server location near those regions.

In our detailed InMotion Hosting review, we also evaluated their customer support, features, and pricing. After our analysis, we find InMotion Hosting to be a great option for businesses who value U.S. based support. Their plans grow as your business grows.

DreamHost has been around for 18 years and is known for their reliable web hosting. They are also an official recommended WordPress hosting provider.

Here are the results from our DreamHost performance tests:

As you can see our test site loaded in just under a second for a server in New York City. That’s faster than 93% of all tested sites.

After the speed test, we ran the Load Impact test on DreamHost servers to see how it would perform during peak traffic hours. We gradually built up to 100 unique visitors at once to see how the server would handle increased requests from multiple connections at once.

Here is the result screenshot:

The blue line is the number of active virtual users on the site, and the green line is the server load time. As you can see the server load remained stable through out the test even at peak traffic.

After the load impact test, we used Bitcatcha to test more accurate server response time from various geographical locations.

The DreamHost server performed well in the U.S loading under a fraction of a second, but in other locations it was slightly slower.

Overall, DreamHost is a great host for websites in any geographical location.

In our detailed DreamHost review, we also evaluated their customer support, features, and pricing. After our analysis, we find DreamHost to be a great option for businesses who value privacy. They offer free domain privacy with each of their domains. They also recently fought the U.S. department of Justice to protect the privacy of one of their customer’s website.

Now that you have seen the performance comparison of the top WordPress hosting companies, it’s time to decide which is the best for your business.

For your convenience, we have created a table with a side-by-side feature list, so you can easily compare the best WordPress hosting companies.

In our in-depth WordPress hosting review, we came to a conclusion that if you are looking to start a blog, then you cannot go wrong with Bluehost. The fact that they offer you a free domain and free SSL for the price of $2.75 per month, it’s very hard to beat.

But truly, you can’t go wrong with any of the top WordPress hosting companies that we have mentioned above. They all offer great uptime, fast servers, quality support, and extremely low prices.

Having helped over 100,000+ users start their website, we have answered quite a lot of questions. Below are some of the answers to the most frequently asked questions about WordPress hosting.

Do I need WordPress hosting to start a website?

If you want to build a WordPress website, then you need web hosting. Your hosting server is where your website files are stored. Every website that you see online uses a web hosting provider.

Are there any free WordPress hosting providers?

There probably are, but we highly recommend that you stay away from them. In most cases, free WordPress hosting providers put advertisements on your website. They may even distribute malware to your users. Last but not least, they can shut down your website at anytime without any notification. Avoid anyone who offers to give you free WordPress hosting, specially if you are serious about your site.

How much does it cost to build a WordPress site?

The cost to build a WordPress website varies based on your needs. It can range from $100 to as high as $30,000. We have created a detailed guide explaining how much does it really cost to build a WordPress website.

Do I need to have my domain and WordPress hosting from the same provider?

No. You can purchase your domain from a provider like GoDaddy and use one of the WordPress hosting providers listed above. However if you don’t have a domain already, then it’s easier to use the same provider (specially if its free).

Can I use these WordPress hosting providers for an eCommerce site?

Yes you absolutely can. All WordPress hosting companies that we recommend offer SSL certificates which is what you need for running an eCommerce website. Most of the WordPress hosting companies listed above offers free SSL with your account.

How to secure my WordPress hosting account?

Your web hosting account is where your website files are stored. So it’s very important that you secure it. The best way to secure your WordPress hosting account is to use a strong password and avoid logging in from public locations (unless you’re using a VPN). We also recommend that you follow our ultimate WordPress security guide to protect your site.

How do I install WordPress on my WordPress hosting account?

Every WordPress hosting provider that we recommend comes with 1-click WordPress install. You can follow our step by step guide on how to install WordPress on your host.

cPanel is a type of control panel that a lot of WordPress hosting companies use. No you do not need cPanel, but it does make things easier in terms of installation, managing email accounts, etc.

How much traffic can these WordPress hosting companies handle?

The amount of traffic your website can handle really depends on the WordPress hosting plan that you’re on. Most shared hosting plans can comfortably handle 1000 to 2000 visitors per day as long as your website is optimized for performance.

As your website grows, your WordPress hosting provider may ask you to upgrade to either VPS hosting or managed WordPress hosting plans.

Can I switch my WordPress hosting provider later?

Yes, you can absolutely switch if you’re unhappy with you WordPress hosting company. Most WordPress hosting companies offer free migration services which makes the process fairly smooth. However if you want to do the migration yourself, then you can follow our step by step guide on how to move WordPress to a new host with no downtime.

Some of the WordPress hosting companies that we recommend give you an option to choose your data center. The location of your data center does make a difference on your website performance for specific geographic location.

If majority of your audience is in United States, then you want to choose a data center in U.S. If a large portion of your audience is in Europe, then you should choose a data center in Europe.

If you are not sure, then just choose U.S for now. You can always use a WordPress CDN to speed up your site for various geographic location.

You will notice that almost every WordPress hosting company offers huge discount for choosing long-term plans. If you are serious about your website, then you will likely keep it for more than a month.

We always recommend against choosing monthly WordPress hosting plans because they cost almost twice as much. It’s a better deal if you choose 12 month or 24 month plan.

Do I need any WordPress hosting addons?

Often WordPress hosting companies will try to upsell you on a wide-variety of services. You really don’t need these services when you’re starting out.

We recommend that you uncheck everything in the order process and only purchase what you really need: WordPress hosting.

You can buy WordPress hosting addons if you need them in the future.

Yes, most WordPress hosting companies will give you the ability to create branded email address. However we recommend that you use Google Apps (also known as GSuite) because it’s more reliable. See our step by step guide on how to setup a professional email address with Google apps.

Yes, every WordPress hosting company claims to keep backups of your website. However from our experience, we advise our users to install a WordPress backup plugin and keep their own backups.

Which are the best WordPress hosting companies in your opinion?

Our top 3 choices for the best WordPress hosting companies are:

No this last question is not a joke. We seriously get this question even after referring people to this guide.

We hope that this guide helped you choose the best WordPress hosting for your website. If you have a WordPress hosting question that we didn’t cover, then please send us a message using our contact form. One of our team members will respond back within 24 hours.

Need helping start your WordPress blog? Take advantage of our free WordPress blog setup service.