Top 5 WordPress Hosting Recommendations for Bloggers
When I started blogging back in 2013, I was not aware of the type of hosting for my blog. For that, I relied on a friend who was a senior web developer. He had hundreds of websites running. After taking ₹2000 for a year he hosted my website on his server, without giving me many details about it. For me it was cool because my blog was live and working; what else did I need.
But the troubles started when the blog started to have downtime, and technical issues while doing any changes in the WordPress.
After 1 year I dropped the domain (meaning I had not renewed it).
From my experience, your website hosting can either make your website or can give you countless headaches.
After that, I started to learn about different hosting types, including which one is the best platform for hosting my domain. In this post, I will try to cover the best possible WordPress hosting for bloggers.
I have cluttered down the list of Top 5 WordPress hosting providers based on 5 criteria:
1. Bluehost
If you are a curious blogger like me who likes to read the reviews of the best WordPress hosting, then there is a 99% chance that you might be familiar with Bluehost. Cyberspace is filled with positive reviews and the reason is obvious “It stands with its commitments”.
Features
Easy to Use Dashboard: From newbies to the experts all want a neat, clean and easy to use dashboard. Bluehost is far ahead of its competitors. From 1 click WordPress installation to creating email IDs and file management all are organised very neatly on the Bluehost dashboard.
Recommended by WordPress: If you open the official WordPress website for hosting recommendations you will find BlueHost at the top spot.
Go to https://wordpress.org/hosting, and scroll down a bit to find Bluehost at the top of the list.
Reliable Performance: In regards to the uptime and performance Bluehost hosting is most consistent as compared to any other hosting provider.
Built-in Security: Website security should be one of the major priorities for any webmaster. With millions of attacks worldwide, security becomes a must. Bluehost has Built-in Security for your website. CMS version, plugin, etc automatic updates to keep your WordPress blog secure.
Fast Website: In today’s era time is everything. People like to go for fast things. With Bluehost, your website will become blazing fast. It has one of the fastest servers in the World.
24/7 Expert Support: Do you often lose your visitors during any technical problem? Then worry not folks, Bluehost is the solution for you. If you have any concerns, questions, or challenges then you can reach out to their 24/7 expert support team through chat, mail, ticket support and Phone.
WordPress Hosting Plans
Here in this section, I will not explain the detailed pricing, because pricing for any business is a variable thing. At the time of writing this post, the price is different and after 1 year or 2 years, it might be different. I can only give you a brief Bluehost plan for the year 2022. The best place to find Bluehost WordPress hosting packages is their website.
| BASIC | PLUS | CHOICE PLUS | PRO | |
| Discounted Price | $2.95/month | $5.45/month | $5.45/month | $13.95/month |
| Actual Price | Normally $9.99 | Normally $14.99 | Regularly $18.99 | Regularly $28.99 |
| Number of Websites | 1 | Unlimited Websites | Unlimited Websites | Unlimited Websites |
| Storage | 10 GB SSD Storage | Unlimited SSD Storage | Unlimited SSD Storage | Unlimited SSD Storage |
| WordPress Installation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 24/7 Customer Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ideal for | Blog or small site | Small businesses | Growing Business Websites | High traffic blog and business websites |
Bluehost WordPress Hosting Plan Link: https://www.bluehost.com/wordpress/wordpress-hosting#pricing-cards
Performance
Without incredible performance, a website is nothing but a bad file system available online which is the liability for the website owner. And we all know for ranking any website on Google we have to be good at every aspect. If you are serious about the website performance and uptime then Bluehost should be your first choice. To enjoy consistent uptime then this WordPress hosting provider is worth considering.
Average 99.98% uptime per year which means they have around 1 hour and 45 minutes of downtime per year which is commendable.
User-Friendliness
Bluehost beats its competitors when it comes to user-friendliness. If you are a newbie you will not lose your path in setting up your WordPress website. With its 1-click WordPress installation, Bluehost will assist you during setup to quickly live your blog.
Pros and Cons
When pros are overtaking the cons for any service/product then this simply means that the product/service is reliable and is used by the majority hassle-free. Bluehost hosting has more pros than its cons.
Read: How to Get a Free Domain + Upto 75% Off on Bluehost
2. Hostgator
To date, I always see Hostgator’s advertisements whenever I watch videos on youtube. Hostgator has been in the web hosting business since 2002. They are one of the most popular hosting providers in the world. Hostgator provides managed WordPress hosting plans that any blogger is in the quest for.
Features
A Plethora of Hosting Offers: With its wide range of hosting plans you will not be limited with WordPress instead you will get hosting as per your requirement.
Good Customer Support: It offers support through every medium. Phone, chat, email, ticket support, etc.
Easy to Use Interface: Once you log in to the dashboard, you will get mini-tutorial popups on each section so that even a nomad can easily understand.
Money-Back Guarantee: As per the Hostgator customer satisfaction is their number 1 priority. In case you are not satisfied with HostGator hosting you can ask for your full refund. Hostgator provides a full refund within a 45-days guarantee.
WordPress Hosting Plans
Hostgator has several managed WordPress hosting plans. With all the plans you will get free SSL, free domain name for the first year, backup up to certain gigabytes, etc.
| Starter Plan | Standard Plan | Business Plan | |
| Price | $5.95/month* | $7.95/month* | $9.95/month* |
| Number of Websites | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| WordPress Installation | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 24/7/365 premium support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Money-back guarantee | 45-day | 45-day | 45-day |
Hostgator WordPress Hosting Plan Link: https://www.hostgator.com/managed-wordpress-hosting
Performance
Nobody wants to have a painfully slow website but what if your current website is slow or sometimes disappears in that case only switching the host is the option. This will cost you money, time and headache. HostGator on the other hand has great performance. You will get a fast loading website which is a major performance indicator. A fast loading website is helpful in the SEO rankings.
Average load time (with default theme): 1.04 sec. As per the test conducted an average uptime for the month of HostGator is 99.95%.
User-Friendliness
Hostgator’s dashboard has improved a lot over the years. Hostgator comes second in terms of user-friendliness after Bluehost. In their dashboard, they have all the things that should be present in the modern dashboard.
Pros and Cons
Like I have said earlier, when pros overtake the cons for any service/product then this simply means that the product/service is reliable and one should consider it.
3. SiteGround
There are plenty of WordPress hosting providers that have affordable plans, but if you are looking for performance-based WordPress hosting then always rely on the reputed hosting provider. One such reputed hosting provider is SiteGround.
Features
Recommended by WordPress Community: According to the WordPress community recommendation, SiteGround represents the best and brightest hosting in the world. When you scroll to the bottom of the WordPress community recommendations, you will find SiteGround in the 3rd position.
Phenomenal 24/7 Support: With SiteGround best 24/7 support build your website without any hassle. Every year the customer support team of SiteGround receives a 100% satisfaction rating.
Perfect Host for Growing Your Website: SiteGround web hosting is perfect for the small website owner who has little knowledge about running a website and wants to grow their website over time.
WordPress Hosting Plans
SiteGround offers 3 managed WordPress hosting plans:
| StartUp | GrowBig | GoGeek | |
| Discounted Price | $3.99/month | $6.69/month | $10.69/month |
| Actual Price | $14.99/month | $24.99/month | $39.99/month |
| Number of Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Storage | 10 GB | 20 GB | 40 GB |
| SSL | Free | Free | Free |
| CDN | Free | Free | Free |
| Free | Free | Free | |
| WordPress Installation | Free | Free | Free |
| Money Back | 30-day | 30-day | 30-day |
| Support | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 |
SiteGround WordPress Hosting Plan Link: https://www.siteground.com/wordpress-hosting.htm
Performance
The reason for SiteGround performance is due to its platform being hosted on the Google cloud. As we all know that Google is known for its speed, innovation, and better infrastructure that guarantees SiteGround hosted websites a high speed.
In WordPress-like platforms, image loading is one of the major problems, which directly impacts the speed of the website. In SiteGround, NGINX Direct Delivery is enabled by default, which makes the image load faster.
User-Friendliness
SiteGround dashboard allows you to easily control your site and hosting.
Home: It holds the information and has all the details to connect with the rest of the panel.
Websites: Here you will see the number of websites hosted on the panel. One can see the WordPress kit in front of the website that has WordPress installed on it.
Services: Navigate to this tab to see the currently active service you have with the SiteGround.
Billing: In this tab, you can manage your billing-related information. Automatic renewal, account information, etc are present here.
Affiliates: To join the SiteGround affiliate program, navigate to this tab. Here you can create a campaign and get your affiliate link
Marketplace: This is the place where you will find 3rd-party services. If you are looking to expand the SiteGround services then go to this section where you will find a plethora of add-ons.
Pros and Cons
4. WP Engine
Any blogger who has zero coding skills chooses WordPress. There are a plethora of drag-and-drop WordPress builders available to make an attractive looking website. WP engine is a WordPress-specific VIP web hosting that offers managed hosting plans. They have a team of experts for your assistance.
Features
Bundled with lots of Premium Themes: Most WordPress hosting plans have themes to please their customers but they are very limited. With WP engine WordPress hosting you will get loads of premium themes along with the Genesis framework.
Free Content Delivery Network (CDN) With All Plans: As we all know a CDN delivers website content very quickly and efficiently. CDN is very helpful when a website has very high traffic such as during Black Friday, Cyber Monday sales day, etc. With the hosting plan of WP Engine, you will get a free CDN.
Fast and Vigorous Servers: WP Engine has lofty speed and uptime. Stop worrying about the speed of your WordPress blog if you have chosen WP Engine as your web host.
WordPress Hosting Plans
Do you want to grow your business?
Do you want to make your WooCommerce store 40% faster?
Do you want an enterprise solution with advanced security?
If you want any of the above then choose the WP Engine plan as per your requirement.
| Startup | Professional | Growth | Scale | Custom | |
| Price | $30/month | $59/month | $115/month | $290/month | Get in Contact with them |
| Number of Websites | 1 | 3 | 10 | 30 | 30+ |
| Storage | 10 GB | 15 GB | 20 GB | 50 GB | 50+ GB |
| Bandwidth | 50 GB/Month | 125 GB/Month | 200 GB/Month | 500 GB/Month | 500+ GB/Month |
| CDN | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Free SSL and SSH | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Premium Themes | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
WP Engine WordPress Hosting Plan Link: https://wpengine.com/plans/
Performance
As compared to the other hosting provider on the list, the price of each plan is high. But with this high price tag, you will get the performance worth that price. WP engine WordPress hosting provides top-notch performance of the website. It has an average uptime of 99.99% with a load time of around 0.496 seconds.
User-Friendliness
To access the WP engine dashboard can be accessed by putting https://my.wpengine.com in the browser. This will be the central hub for managing your WordPress website.
Sites will be the first page to which you will be taken. Here you can search your websites and add filters, etc.
In the Genesis pro tab, you will find all the Genesis theme features like themes, blocks, custom blocks, etc. Click on this link if you want to understand and use the entire WP Engine Dashboard.
Pros and Cons
5. DreamHost
This is the only hosting company on our list that was founded before the year 2000. DreamHost was founded in 1996, in Claremont, California, U.S.
Features
Unmatched WordPress Hosting: DreamHost platforms are specially optimised for WordPress. With DreamHost, you can either take control of your server or let the expert team of them handle all things for you.
Recommended by WordPress: DreamHost ranks second in the list of WordPress recommendations. The team of DreamHost is actively contributing to the WordPress community.
Small Difference Between Renewal cost and Initial Price: Unlike other hosting companies who trapped you in a low introductory price but their renewal price is far high. This does not stand true with DreamHost as there is a small difference between their initial price and the renewal cost.
WordPress Hosting Plans
Dreamhost has web hosting plans for all kinds of website owners. For the WordPress website, they have 3 plans.
WordPress Basic: It has 2 plans – WordPress Starter and WordPress Unlimited.
| WordPress Starter | WordPress Unlimited | |
| Price | $2.59/month | $3.95/month |
| Number of Websites | 1 Website | Unlimited Websites |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited Traffic | Unlimited Traffic |
| Free Domain | Yes | Yes |
| Money-back guarantee | 97-Day | 97-Day |
| WordPress | Pre-Installed | Pre-Installed |
DreamPress: Further it has 3 plans – DreamPress, DreamPress Plus and DreamPress.
| DreamPress | DreamPress Plus | DreamPress Pro | |
| Price | $16.95/month | $24.95/month | $71.95/month |
| Storage | 30GB SSD Storage | 60GB SSD Storage | 120GB SSD Storage |
| Bandwidth | Unmetered | Unmetered | Unmetered |
| Money-back guarantee | 97-Day | 97-Day | 97-Day |
| Support | 24/7 | 24/7 | 24/7 |
VPS for WordPress: It has 4 plans – VPS Basic, VPS Business, VPS Professional and VPS Enterprise.
| VPS Basic | VPS Business | VPS Professional | VPS Enterprise | |
| Price | $10.00/month | $20.00/month | $40.00/month | $80.00/month |
| Storage | 30GB SSD Storage | 60GB SSD Storage | 120GB SSD Storage | 240GB SSD Storage |
| RAM | 1 GB | 2 GB | 4 GB | 8 GB |
| Number of Websites | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Bandwidth | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Money-back guarantee | 97-Day | 97-Day | 97-Day | 97-Day |
* All the pricing is based on 3 years of tenure.
DreamHost WordPress Hosting Plan Link: https://www.dreamhost.com/wordpress/
Performance
Dreamhost might not have good stats in performance but they have fast performing websites. It is a reliable hosting provider and has all the plans for your WordPress website. Like the other hosting providers in our list, DreamHost also uses SSD which makes overall data speed 200 times faster.
User-Friendliness
After login into your hosting panel, you will find a cleanly organised dashboard. All the important features are organised in a great manner so that it can not become a daunting task for the users.
Pros and Cons
If you are looking for reliable WordPress hosting for your blog then always look for the hosting provider’s pros and cons. For DreamHost, the pros outweigh the cons.
Bonus
IONOS (1&1)
Tapblogging.com is hosted on IONOS.
It was previously known as 1&1, founded back in 1988 in Germany. Now it is owned by United Internet. All the hosting plans such as managed WordPress shared hosting, VPS, Cloud and many more are available on IONOS web hosting.
Features
Eco-Friendly Data Centres: Become a part of sustainable web hosting. They claim to use renewable sources of energy whenever or wherever possible. Their US data centre runs on wind power energy. The UK and Germany run on 100% renewable sources saving around 973.33 tons of CO₂.
Platform Optimised for WordPress: You can install WordPress on the IONOS server by installing it on the server or by signing up for managed WordPress. Opt in for the IONOS platform if you want more speed, control and security.
Low Price with Reliable Hosting: Their business plan is one of the lowest hosting plans packed with loads of features available in the market. If you are an entry-level blogger and want to have features like SSL, free domain, backup, etc at a low price then IONOS is the perfect hosting platform for you.
WordPress Hosting Plans
One of the main reasons for choosing IONOS as my web hosting is their WordPress hosting plans which start at $0.50/month.
| Essential | Business | Unlimited | |
| Price | $3/Month | $0.50/Month | $8/Month |
| Renewal cost | $4/Month | $8/Month | $16/Month |
| Storage | 25 GB SSD storage | 100 GB SSD storage | Unlimited SSD storage |
| Free Domain | 1 Year | 1 Year | 1 Year |
| Free SSL Certificate | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| DDos and malware protection | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Email Addresses | 1 | 5 | 10 |
IONOS (1&1) WordPress Hosting Plan Link: https://www.ionos.com/hosting/wordpress-hosting#plans
Performance
When it comes to Google ranking site performance is crucial. On the Google page, the speed insight score will always be 90+.
Gtmetrix result will always be A.
Tools.Pingdom load time.
User-Friendliness
Being a regular user, I like the neat, clean and easy to use user interface of the dashboard.
Being a regular user, On top of the dashboard menu has the same links as the icons present on the main dashboard interface. This is helpful for direct navigation from one option to another.
Domain & SSL: See the details of domain status, expiration date, etc.
Email: Create and manage your domain email in this section.
Websites & Stores: Check your website health score, statics, etc here.
Hosting: Get all the hosting details here such as databases, FTP, PHP, etc.
Security Solutions: Manage your SSL certificate, site protection, etc can be managed from here.
My Account: This section has all the details related to the account.
Add Product: All the recommended products from the IONOS are curated here.
Pros and Cons
After using IONOS for my blog below is the list of pros and cons:
Top Things to Look for in a Web Hosting Service
1. Pricing
While choosing WordPress hosting we all have some sort of budget. The entire web hosting sector is filled with a huge number of providers that make this industry a competitive space. This cutthroat competition always benefits the users. Most of the web hosting companies including the top players are providing WordPress hosting at an affordable price. Always check for their sign up price and the renewal price (read point no.6 below for more details).
2. Technical Specifications
You might not be the tech-savvy guy but a few technical specifications should be looked at while choosing the best hosting service for your website. Technical specifications include disk storage, RAM, processing power, PHP version, my SQL database version, etc.
3. Uptime
A delay of a few seconds in the website speed impacts the traffic. The slow speed of the website impacts their willingness to buy the product. In this post, I have only curated the top web hosting companies that provide an average uptime of 99.95%.
4. Security
Cyber security is not a new thing. As you all know that any security attack costs only business loss. Security of the website is very important when you run an eCommerce store. Always work with the hosting company that gives top-notch security to your website.
5. Support
Support is a backbone for any operational business. The success of any business relies on the support they are providing for the product. Even with the top hosting companies, you will need technical assistance once in a while. Always choose the hosting company that has a 24 hours and 7 days technical support team.
Do not check their support after purchasing the host for your website, check before buying by engaging them with live chat, email, phone, etc.
6. Renewal Fee
Web hosting companies these days give lucrative offers to trap the customers. Their first year hosting fee might be very low but the renewal fees are very high. Beware of these types of website hosting companies that have very high renewal fees. A study By Jerry Low of hostscore.net shows that renewal cost is 160% more expensive than the Initial price.
7. Backup Service
Malicious attacks are common on websites. Not only are these malicious attacks responsible for valuable data loss but some mishaps also occur. Due to data loss, all the hard work goes into the vein.
Most of the reputed hosting companies these days provide cloud-based data backup in the hosting plan. They provide data backup service on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Always look for a company that provides data backup service.
8. Multiple Domain Allowance
Always look for the hosting company that allows you to add multiple domains including add domains and subdomains. Because in the future you might need to buy multiple domains. One of the most used cases in this situation is when you want your domain name to be protected and want to buy most of its extensions.
Example: You have purchased the domain name abc.org to protect its extension such as .com, .net, etc and redirect it to the main .org version. It will be also useful when some types abc.com then the visitor will be redirected to abc.org which is your main business domain.
9. Hosting Limitations
Always watch out for the limitations the hosting company has while signing up. Pay attention to all the limitations your hosting company provides if they have restrictions then move to the company that has very less limitations.
10. Reviews
Users’ reviews are great to decide whether one can buy the hosting service or not. All the reviews given by the users share their personal experiences with the hosting provider. After reading the positive and negative experiences of the users you will be able to make a full and final decision of choosing the hosting company.
Image Credits
Freepik and All screenshots were taken by the author, 18 June 2022
