When it comes to websites, the unseen hero of everything you do is your web host provider- hands down. It’s not flashy, it’s not alluring and we don’t really understand how it all works, it just does. And that’s the double-edged sword that all good web host providers have to contend with.
They go about their daily business supporting people like yourself, helping you set up your websites effortlessly, keeping everything secure and making everything blazingly fast and most of the time you don’t even understand they are the ones doing it.
That is the key to a great hosting provider, a business who does all that and you never even notice they are there. If you can get all the above at an awesome price then you’ve arrived in the land of utopia.
If on the other hand your web host provider is someone you have to talk to every day for issues with your website, then you know it’s time to find someone else. If your website is slow and cumbersome to navigate, people will just click away. If your website is full of malware, people will just stay away, or worse, crucify you online.
And let’s not forget that Google loves fast loading websites. They know that if people have to wait for a page to load then they will probably click away.
So what do they do? They penalise you for a slow loading website. The moral of the story is make sure you pick a WordPress web host provider who knows what they are doing and who consistently provide quick load times for your website.
That’s why we’ve put a list together of some of the best WordPress web hosting companies in the business. To find out which WordPress web host provider we use the most, read through to the very end of this article.
1. GoDaddy
TIME SENSITIVE UPDATE: (50% sale on now… don’t miss out, go to www.GoDaddy.com now and sign up for your dedicated WordPress web hosting today.)
GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) really has come full circle these last couple of years with new CEO Blake Irving turning what was essentially a ship that was once entrenched as one of the most sexist companies on the planet to one that empowers women from all across the globe to flex their entrepreneurial muscle.
In the process GoDaddy has become one of the best web hosting and domain name providers out there. They are the largest domain name registrar with over 62 million domain names under management. They have 14 facilities (offices and data centres) scattered around the world that help deliver their technology products seamlessly to their over 14 million customers and all this with some 5,000 employees.
Did I mention they also have award wining 24/7 customer service available to all their customers across the globe. They have been recognised with a Stevie Award for customer service five years running. No question is too small or too big, they are there to help all day long, 365 days a year.
When it comes to WordPress web hosting they have really got their stuff together, with servers specifically built for WordPress and in the process optimising your site’s speed, reliability and security. This used to cost you hundreds of dollars a month to achieve and now it all comes standard when you sign up for GoDaddy’s WordPress hosting.
Your hosting also comes with a free automatic daily backup and one click restore features, making it easy to revert to the previous day’s website should anything go wrong with an update or something more sinister. Until a restore from a back up is actually required, you really don’t understand how invaluable this feature is and you will be kicking yourself if your provider doesn’t have this as part of their standard hosting package (trust me we’ve found out the hard way).
With automatic WordPress core software and security updates you will be safe in the knowledge that your website is secure and up to date at all times. GoDaddy also has a 99.9% up time promise ensuring your website is always online and accessible to all your potential readers, followers and/or customers.
With a seamless WordPress migration tool, coming across to GoDaddy really is a breeze.
Their secret sauce is basically providing killer features, exceptional web hosting performance, unbeatable 24/7 customer service 365 days a year and some of the best web hosting pricing available.
The only draw back I can think of is that email is an added extra, however their packages still seem to have some of the best pricing out there even after adding the extra cost for email.
Having said that we no longer use the standard email services that come with web hosting packages, we feel they are redundant. We prefer to use the Google Apps for Work in conjunction with GoDaddy WordPress web hosting.
Google Apps for Work provides email and a host of other amazing features including communication and productivity tools that take your business to the next level all for a nominal monthly fee of just $5 and we think you should use this setup instead of the default email service provided by hosting companies – click here for more information and to get your Google Apps for Work.
Oh, and I almost forgot, GoDaddy also give you a FREE domain name with every annual web hosting plan you purchase.
We have over 40 Domains registered with GoDaddy and over 5 WordPress websites hosted with their dedicated WordPress servers.
So for all the above reasons and then some, we use GoDaddy for the bulk of our online businesses and we believe you should too.
They currently have a 50% sale on, so go to GoDaddy WordPress web hosting now and sign up for your dedicated WordPress annual web hosting plan today and get your FREE domain name in the process…you’ll be glad you did.
Once you click through to GoDaddy, you can use the link above, go back to the course and we’ll show you step by step how to purchase your GoDaddy web hosting, how to get your FREE domain name from them and how to setup your web hosting in minutes, it’s as easy as 1, 2,3.
GoDaddy really does have some of the most economical and feature packed WordPress web hosting packages available at the moment.
2. HostGator
Next cab off the rank is the ever reliant and always fun HostGater who, when it comes to web hosting, have over 8 million websites on their books, second only to GoDaddy. They’ve been in business for over 14 years and are no Johnny come lately.
They are owned by the Endurance International Group (NASDAQ:EIGI), who also just happen to own bluehost web hosting, who we talk about next.
Their customers swear by them and it’s as if they can do no wrong, so that’s got to count for something. When it comes to web hosting, HostGator really know their stuff and have great plans for beginner and expert web developers alike.
They also have 24/7 phone support and their live chat is really fun to get into, especially with the animated gator and sound effects. Overall their support is good and reliable without rocking anyone’s world.
Their up time guarantee is 99.9% and they do have servers that are tweaked to get the most out of WordPress. But here’s the thing, to get the power and speed boosts you do need to get the more expensive packages. That’s not to say the starter pack is no good, because it pretty darn good. However you can get better performance if you pay more and that’s a bit of a bummer.
Like GoDaddy, HostGator web hosting do provide help for migrating your website to their servers and they do this FREE of charge, when other companies we discuss below do it for a fee.
When it comes to domain names, they do have a service for you to purchase your own domain off them, but they do not provide a domain for free with any of their packages (at the time of writing and as far as I can see) which is a shame as most of the other big players in this space do.
They have won a bunch of awards between 2009 and 2013 – best web host 2012, best transfer service 2011 and editor’s choice 2011 to name but a few.
When it comes to backups, HostGator performs weekly backups and holds about 1 week’s worth of back ups in total. Is that enough? Well it really depends on your website, for many it will be more than enough and for others not nearly enough. For us we prefer daily backups at all times.
Overall their service and quality of hosting is some of the best on the net, their engineers know what they are doing and the company must be doing something right with 8 million web hosting customers. However to get the most out of their WordPress tweaked servers you do need to get the more expensive packages.
Having said that would we use them if we didn’t have GoDaddy around? Heck yeah we would!
If you’re interested at taking a closer look at their WordPress web hosting packages they can be found here.
3. BlueHost
As we mentioned above, the Endurance International Group (NASDAQ:EIGI) also happen to own bluehost web hosting. It’s something like coke and sprite, they are both owned by the same company, they are both soft drinks, however they are completely different brands and the same applies here.
To be clear both companies are isolated from each other and for all intents and purposes are separate companies.
Bluehost web hosting does seem to cater towards a more corporate client in the sense that they don’t have the same fun filled marketing that HostGator or GoDaddy have and their consoles and dashboards seem a little more sterile and clunky to use.
Some might say that is a minor drawback but I believe usability is becoming more important every day. Especially with more and more entrepreneurs coming online and setting up their own websites..usability is the key.
They have something like more than 2 million customers who swear by them and WordPress.org does recommend them for all your WordPress web hosting needs. When the biggest customer management system on the planet, with over 80 million websites, recommends you to their users that has got to count for something.
Having said that, the recommendation was made a while ago and even though it’s still on their website they are in the process of reviewing all of their WordPress web hosting recommendations and they say as much on their website. At the moment the recommendation is only there for the sake of having something to recommend.
Much has changed in web hosting over the years and what was once clear cut is no longer so cut and dry. Like everyone else in this article their WordPress web hosting is world class with 99.9% up time and their support some of the best without winning any awards for it.
Having said that, while writing this article and I was checking facts on their website. Their website had, what can only be described as a brain freeze moment and I couldn’t connect instantly with their careers page, it took something like over a 2 minutes to come up.
At the same time I tried jumping on HostGator and GoDaddy and had no problem at all. This sort of thing can and does happen to the best of them.
However while writing this article I didn’t have this issue with any of the other web hosting companies we talk about in this article. I was debating wether I should put this in the article at all, but in the end it is what it is.
Their starter WordPress web host package starts at $24.99 RRP a month they currently have a special of $12.49 for the first month (that’s correct the first month ONLY) and it gets even more expensive from there. So the initial entry cost is much higher straight off the bat.
Cost to entry is over 600% more than GoDaddy, at least, when it comes to the WordPress web hosting entry package anyway. They do have other cheaper packages that you can run WordPress on but I’m comparing the WordPress optimised servers only.
It’s almost as if they really aren’t interested in the small business owner wanting a low cost to entry.
Like HostGator their backup policy is also weekly however they have a bunch of caveats that in short absolve them of any responsibility if something goes wrong and they pretty much put it all back on you to do your own backups. Having said that they do weekly backups with a 30 day rolling backup period and any backup older than that is overwritten (all pretty standard).
While they do offer a FREE domain on their monthly hosting packages that you can also install WordPress on, they don’t offer the same for their WordPress optimised packages, I’m not sure why, but they don’t (so no FREE domain in this comparison).
They do offer a migration service for a fee currently $149.99 (remember GoDaddy and HostGator provide this for FREE), and a quick start 1 on 1 training to get you started for $79.99 and that’s the catch here, they have a bunch of add-ons to their packages and you’re constantly bombarded with upgrade offers and add-on offers, so be prepared.
However if you still want to take a look at what they have to offer when it comes to their WordPress optimised web hosting you can do so here.
4. WPEngine
WP Engine has some heavy hitters on their books with the likes of HTC, Foursquare, AMD, Yelp and SoundCloud to name just a few. They even have Neil Patel who was once dubbed the greatest marketer in the world.
They specialise in WordPress optimised web hosting and their setup is somewhat, well, specialised.
So what do I mean? Well to obtain the blazing speeds that they do, with the amount of traffic some of these sites receive, they have to set their servers up in a certain way, that they then control tightly.
There are a few things that are a no no when using WP Engine for your hosting needs and really you have to check with them about what you can and cannot do. There’s also a bunch of plugins that they don’t allow you to use for security and site speed reasons. So you need to take a look at that too.
There are also some SEO quirks of their system setup that may need your attention like the doubling up on pages while Google is indexing your site (to name but one).
Basically all the reasons that make this web hosting platform so quick and secure also make it so much harder to comply with and to keep everything running smoothly. Compared to GoDaddy and HostGator setting up on WP Engine and keeping compliant may require that you pay them to help you do just that.
And just like bluehost their cost to entry is very high at $29 a month but for that you get a super fast WordPress web hosting package that many people swear by. Their customer support by all accounts is top notch and they do go out of their way to help you without doing the developer work for you, which can be done for an added cost (as most of these more specialised companies do).
Some developers have claimed that their web hosting is overly restrictive purely for the reason of requiring customers to use their developer services and in turn customers have been dumping third party developers for the WP Engine developer services.
I don’t know how much truth there is to this, however WP Engine is very specialised in that sense and it’s probably best that you allow them to set everything up for you for a fee of course (or use a developer who knows WP Engine well). This of course is only if you deviate from the standard install and require specific things that only a developer can provide (which really isn’t the case most of the time).
Having said that once your site is up and running using WordPress is the same no matter what web hosting you are on (except for some restrictions on what plugins you can use with WP Engine web hosting).
They also have a 99.9% uptime so all good on that front and they do automatic daily back ups with one step restore points for you too. However I will note that for the PERSONAL starter package the CDN (Content Delivery Network) is an added extra of $19.99, this is free on most other web host providers and in fact it is also free for the rest of their packages.
They do not provide a domain name service though and are strictly a web hosting company only so you will need to purchase your domain from some other provider.
If you think that WP Engine is someone you would like to take a look at then go to check their Wordpress web hosting packages for more information on what they have to offer.
5. Synthesis
The big boy of them all is Synthesis WordPress web hosting by Rainmaker Digital LLC. These guys are the same people who own StudioPress that develop the Genesis framework and StudioPress WordPress themes, they’ve also run the hugely successful Copyblogger marketing website and recently they added the Rainmaker platform to their arsenal of online tools.
These guys know what they are doing and their offering of WordPress web hosting is second to none. They have highly tuned their servers to get the maximum out of them while running Genesis and other premium WordPress framework.
Everything they do is geared towards getting the most out of WordPress and the servers they run on. Their security checks and updates are rock solid and just like WP Engine everything has been tweaked so there are some plugins that just won’t work on their web servers.
HTACCESS is also not allowed however they do provide full support for rewrite rules including 301s, 302s, and complex deny/allow logic and their standard configuration puts rewrite rules in place for WordPress permalinks too.
Now here’s the kicker, their price to entry is a whopping $47 per month, no discounts, no lower plans available whatsoever.
For that though you get one of the quickest web hosting setups there is on the web, security the envy of Fort Knox and a suite of SEO and marketing tools the envy of any marketer online today including Neil Patel.
Some big online players use Synthesis but none bigger than Yoast (the biggest online WordPress SEO plugin in the market) with millions of websites using their plugin you can bet their traffic is huge and they wouldn’t use anyone else (so they claim). If the biggest SEO plugin provider for WordPress uses them you’d be crazy not to.
However at over 10x the cost of say the GoDaddy WordPress web hosting, the question really becomes does your website really need all this to function properly and in all likelihood the answer is no. It’s good to know they exist though so when the day comes that you really do need to look for something that’s out of this world you know who to turn to.
We still use them for two of our own WordPress websites, no word of a lie.
If you want more information on the plans they have available then go to the Synthesis web hosting page for more information.
OUR RECOMMENDATION:
Having read through all the above information the question still remains who should you go with? If you haven’t guessed already the list is in sequential order of who we think has the best features and service at the best price.
The reality is any of the above WordPress web host providers can and will provide you with exceptional quality and service when it comes to hosting your WordPress website.
However one company does standout when it comes to providing all the best features at the lowest entry price point available and that’s GoDaddy. There’s a reason why we have over 40 domain names with them and 5 separate WordPress web hosted websites on their optimized platform and it all comes down to an amazing service for both hardware and support.
Yes we know that email is an added extra however we also recommend that you use Google Apps for Work and all its added extra features instead of your default web host email service, which really pales in comparison.
The two services together make for a killer backbone to any WordPress website and should be the go-to setup for everyone wanting to get their website online.
That’s what we do.