There are hundreds of WordPress hosting services out there all claiming to offer similar benefits. However, as a professional WordPress development company with over 15 years of experience, we’ve learned that not all hosting companies are able to offer the level of quality, service, and support that our clients require.
That’s why CHRS Interactive has hand-picked five WordPress hosting companies that we think provide the best mix of pricing and performance for business owners.
When it comes to reliable hosting options for WordPress sites, these names are the best of the best. In this informative guide, we’ll compare five of the top WordPress hosting services in 2021 and explain the major pros and cons of each choice.
1. WP Engine
WP Engine offers their most basic managed hosting package at $25/month. That $25 will allow you around 25,000 visits and 50 GB of bandwidth usage for one website. It’s a good chunk of change for an introductory plan. However, it’s worth it for growing businesses that need their pages to load extremely quickly For this premium price, you can expect slightly faster page loading times than some of the bigger, cheaper companies.
When we recently tested page speeds for the popular Avada WordPress theme on WP Engine, we found that the median page loading time was a super speedy 627 milliseconds. The same theme with other hosting providers can take more then 2 seconds to load. Industry best practice states that anything under 2 seconds is generally considered acceptable, but the faster the better of course.
2. SiteGround
If you are a brand doing less than 10,000 monthly page views, SiteGround has a great StartUp plan that is currently only $3.99/month for managed WordPress hosting. If you need slightly more bandwidth, you can get up to 25,000 views for just a few dollars extra at $6.69 monthly.
They are one of the biggest names in the WordPress hosting space for a good reason. SiteGround has been offering reliable hosting since all the way back in 2004 when WordPress was first created. This long history of success has consistently earned them one of the top ratings under the web hosting services category.
Installing and updating your WordPress site through SiteGround only takes a few clicks too. You can have something basic up and running in minutes. Then, should you require any in-depth customization down the road, you can hire a professional developer like CHRS Interactive to finish the job.
3. InMotion Hosting
The WP hosting plans at InMotion start at $6.99/month. They are very comparable to the level of quality and service offered by SiteGround plans. The main benefit of InMotion hosting is the large amount of storage space that you get compared to other similarly priced affordable WordPress hosting companies.
If you plan on displaying a lot of images, videos, or other data-heavy content on your website, InMotion is the perfect option. While SiteGround only offers 20GB of SSD storage for that price, InMotion will give you up to 100GB currently on their WP-2000S plan. This generous data storage allowance also makes them a great choice for small businesses that need Woocommerce hosting to sell their products online.
4. Kinsta
Kinsta is a boutique WordPress hosting provider that utilizes 100% renewable energy to host all of its websites! When it comes to eco-friendly WordPress hosting, this one is at the top of the list.
Although they are a smaller WordPress hosting provider, they don’t skimp on their infrastructure. They utilize the Google Cloud Platform and Cloudflare, so they are backed up by some of the biggest tech companies. This means that despite their dedication to green hosting, you can still expect essentially no downtime ever.
Plus, instead of using the standard cPanel UI like many hosting companies, Kinsta has its own easy-to-use interface that makes managing your WordPress sites a dream come true. You’ll save so much time with their easy to use dashboard. While their hosting service costs $30/month for a basic WP plan, if you don’t have a lot of experience dealing with websites, it might be well worth it.
5. Liquid Web
One of the greatest features about Liquid Web is the huge amount of bandwidth they offer on their plans. Compared to WP Engine’s introductory 50 GB of bandwidth per month, you’ll get almost forty times that. Even with the introductory “Spark” plan, you’ll still receive two terabytes of bandwidth. That means that your site will be able to support an incredible amount of visitors for the reasonable price of just $9.50/month.
Plus, their customer support is top-notch. If you ever have an issue with your website’s performance, their certified technicians will likely get back to you within minutes.
Making the final choice regarding a WordPress host
All of this can be a little confusing. However, it’s clear that choosing one of these “managed” WordPress hosting options is really the way to go for most businesses. Not only is managed hosting generally faster than shared hosting, but it also offers a number of additional benefits.
These hosting companies will set up your website server for you, taking care of many of the technical headaches that you might run into when trying to host on a VPS (Virtual Private Server) yourself. With managed hosting, you’ll typically get a built-in control panel, automated software updates, security and malware scanning, SSH access, 24/7 customer support, and most importantly, around 99.99% uptime.
There are a wide range of different packages and plans that you can sort through. However, if you are still confused or would like some additional expert insight, feel free to contact one of our WordPress developers at CHRS Interactive. As professional WordPress experts, we have all of the insider knowledge necessary to help you select the best WordPress hosting provider for your next project.