How to Choose the Best WordPress Hosting
It’s time to choose a hosting provider.
You’ve been researching and seeing different opinions about different hosting providers, and you land on yet another guide, with another set of top hosting providers.
Choosing a great hosting provider does not have to be difficult, despite the unlimited amount of options you have. It just really comes down to knowing exactly what to look for in a hosting provider and then matching that up with your specific needs.
That’s why in this guide, we’re going to be breaking down exactly how to choose the best WordPress hosting.
3 Factors To Consider When Choosing Your Hosting Service
Pricing
When it comes to web hosting, you get what you pay for in terms of quality.
While a cheaper price may look more tempting to go after, it could be something you would soon regret, if you’re not careful.
The pricing of a hosting company is based upon certain aspects like the number of servers used, the quality of support, and the overall reliability of their servers.
A great price range to look for is anywhere between $3-$35 per month for shared hosting plans. When you are on a shared hosting plan, it allows companies to offer their services at a more affordable rate but doesn’t believe when a hosting company says their services are “unlimited” because, despite the claim, you’ll still have usage restrictions.
If your site is not getting any significant amounts of traffic on a monthly basis, you should be okay with a shared hosting plan. On the other hand, if you do happen to be getting large amounts of traffic each month, your hosting company will eventually force you to a higher-priced plan.
If you already have a blog with high traffic, you should consider VPS hosting, so your not sharing your server with as many people as you’d be with a shared hosting plan.
Performance
In general, hosting companies are utilized for the purpose of bringing your domain online for others to see. When it comes to performance, there are a few key features that’ll let you know how well a hosting company performs:
1. Bandwidth
2. Fast server times
3. Large disk space
The best way to get the answers to these questions is to reach out and ask the hosting provider the specifics about their company.
There are questions that are important to everyone like hosting speeds and stable online servers, but what’s really important to website owners will vary by the individual.
What may be more important to someone may not be important to someone else. As far as features, these may be additional add-ons to the main package you get, but they should still be of great quality and worth the money.
Some common features that come with hosting companies are
1. Backup services
2. Subdomain and add-on domain
3. Free domain offerings
Customer Service
Besides the overall quality of the service, the second most important attribute is the customer service. If in the event, your website goes down or you have an issue with your website in general, you want to be able to reach a customer service rep to get your site back on track as soon as possible. Most hosting companies have a phone and email support, and if they don’t, you should be extra cautious.
Some companies also have chat support, which is a plus because it offers immediate support.
The Top 5 Best WordPress Hosting
Bluehost
Bluehost was founded in 1996 and is one of the largest and most popular hosting companies currently online. With an instant set up, you can have your website up and running in no time. They offer a number of features including a free domain name, one-click installs, automated backups, and 24/7 support.
Starting at only $3.95 per month, you have access to high-quality servers and dependable web hosting at your fingertips.
Inmotion
Most popular for their superior support, the Los Angeles based hosting company offers a number of different hosting types along with drag and drop theme support and a selection of different WordPress themes to choose from.
Inmotion also offers free backups, automated WordPress updates, and 24/7 support just in case you need any help along the way.
Site Ground
SiteGround is one of the only hosting companies that is WordPress-approved. They offer multiple data centers, free set up, and site transfers. They are also one of the only companies that offer location specific hosting with 3 different data centers in the USA, Asia, and Europe.
They offer a 30-day money-back guarantee and have around the clock, 24/7 support ready to assist customers whenever needed. If you are looking for a shared hosting account that is loaded with features and offers amazing support, SiteGround is the way to go.
WP Engine
This is the only hosting company that is entirely dedicated to WordPress. WP Engine automatically backs up your site on a daily basis and allows you to restore your site with just a few clicks of a button, which is super convenient.
There is also a slew of other features including:
1. Unlimited data transfers
2. Malware scanning
3. Live site monitoring
4. Bundled caching
This hosting is excellent if you run a personal blog or an e-commerce store.
Dream Host
Dream Host is one of those companies that have been around for well over a decade and continues to provide amazing support for their customers.
Included in their services are a custom-built control panel and a one-click WordPress install. With plenty of space and bandwidth, you can be sure that you’ll have not only a reliable hosting service hosting your website but one where you can obtain plenty of information from their newsletter, useful wiki, and their support team.
Final Thoughts
When it comes down to choosing a great hosting provider for your website, there are a few factors that should be considered. You want to look for a hosting company that has amazing support, useful features, and reliable servers.
All of the hosting companies we’ve listed have all of these attributes and more and continually provide an amazing experience for their customers time and time again.
Choosing a hosting provider can be a daunting decision, but hopefully, we can make that decision just a little easier for you with our list of the best WordPress hosting providers.
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