Are you shopping for the best WordPress Hosting for your business? There are hundreds of WordPress web hosts out there, so it is crucial that you make an educated choice when selecting where to host your website.
At Sprout Invoices, WordPress is something we consider ourselves to be experts at, so we decided to create a resource to give you the lowdown on web hosting providers that we have experience with, and help you make an educated decision when selecting your web host.
We have put together a list of what we consider to be the best WordPress hosting companies, and we spent some time reviewing and researching each. Without further ado, let’s get into the best hosting options available for your business and website.
While all the companies we have reviewed are all great, we will share specific details about what makes them unique below.
Each one of these hosting providers offer the best WordPress hosting plans for a variety of needs. These include reliability, performance and security requirements.
What does it take to make it to this list? Every one of these WordPress hosting companies have plans that can cater to a variety of businesses, from your personal blog to a eCommerce website. They also offer different features, which we will discuss in detail below.
Finding The Best WordPress Hosting: What do you need to know?
There are a few different types of website hosting, and the following information will help you better understand what type would fit you best. It can be challenging to move hosts once you are established, so it is in your interest to select the best WordPress host for your needs when setting up your site.
Because of this, you may find yourself asking the question, “What are the different types of web hosting that are available?” Here at Sprout Invoices, we have you covered. The following list outlines the differences between Managed WordPress hosting, shared hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated hosting.
Managed WordPress Hosting
This is a specific hosting account type that is built with WordPress in mind. If you don’t know much about running servers, or the technical upkeep of your website, Managed WordPress Hosting can fill that gap. This will allow you to focus your time and efforts on running your business. Even companies with the technical know-how still tend choose this type of WordPress hosting plan. So while it can be a little more expensive than regular hosting, it may be worth it to you in the long run.
Shared Hosting
Virtual Private Server or VPS Hosting
Dedicated Server Hosting
Cloud Hosting
What are the WordPress Hosting Requirements?
WordPress recommends that your web hosting platform supports the following:
- PHP version 7.4 or greater.
- MySQL version 5.6 or greater OR MariaDB version 10.1 or greater.
- HTTPS support (SSL).
Officially speaking, WordPress supports PHP 7.0 through 7.4 currently, but it works best with 7.2+
There are a few PHP extensions you want to be sure are installed, here is a list of the basics you will need:
- curl – Performs remote request operations.
- dom – Used to validate Text Widget content and to automatically configure IIS7+.
- exif – Works with metadata stored in images.
- fileinfo – Used to detect mimetype of file uploads.
- hash – Used for hashing, including passwords and update packages.
- json – Used for communications with other servers.
- mbstring – Used to properly handle UTF8 text.
- mysqli – Connects to MySQL for database interactions.
- sodium – Validates Signatures and provides securely random bytes.
- openssl – Permits SSL-based connections to other hosts.
- pcre – Increases performance of pattern matching in code searches.
- imagick – Provides better image quality for media uploads.
- xml – Used for XML parsing, such as from a third-party site.
- zip – Used for decompressing Plugins, Themes, and WordPress update packages.
WordPress can work in almost any environment, and all of the hosts we have listed below have met these requirements and more. As a result, they are able to ensure that hosting your website is a pleasant experience.
Our Take On The Best WordPress Hosting Providers
InMotion Hosting
InMotion Hosting provides premium web hosting with 24/7/365 technical support, 99.99% uptime and a risk-free money-back guarantee. With over half a million WordPress installs, they are a terrific choice for your startup, or existing website. Technical Support is US-based and not only are they reliable, they are extremely helpful when it comes to sharing their WordPress expertise and knowledge.
InMotion Hosting also has a WordPress Hosting offering with their UltraStack platform that automatically optimizes your WordPress website with industry leading speed. With InMotion’s WordPress offering, you will also get a free SSL certificate, SSD’s, a drag and drop WordPress website builder, hundreds of free professional templates, server to server migrations, safe upgrades and on the fly vulnerability patching all included.
Read our InMotion Hosting Review
Cloudways Hosting
Cloudways Hosting is a unique web host on this list in that they don’t run their own servers. Rather, they utilize trusted cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, Digital Ocean, Linode and Vultr and as their hosting servers. They then provide their own layer of management to make these services as easy to use as possible, and bill on an hourly or monthly basis, something most traditional web hosts do not offer.
They offer an impressive set of features including a free SSL, a CDN, dedicated firewall, managed backups and much more. They also have 24/7 support available via live chat and an extensive knowledgebase to help you get up and running.
Read our Cloudways Hosting Review
DreamHost
DreamHost is a great place to start, offering you web hosting with a purpose. They are an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider from WordPress, listed on the software’s website. DreamHost offers a range of plans that include all of the essential things you need to host your WordPress website. With over 20 years of experience with web hosting, DreamHost and its team of WordPress experts will help you keep your website fast, secure, and always online.
Offering a 100% uptime guarantee, it is clear that DreamHost stands behind their product. With an easy to use interface that offers the features you need at an affordable price, they are a great option for your company if you are just starting out or looking for a new hosting provider. Included with their WordPress plans you will find WordPress pre-installed, a website builder with drag and drop functionality, and a money back guarantee.
Bluehost
Bluehost is an officially recommended hosting provider by WordPress.org. They are considered one of the highest-rated web hosting companies around, and Bluehost specializes in WordPress Hosting. With both a WordPress and Managed WordPress offering, they are also including a free domain for the first year, a free SSL certificate, and all kinds of WordPress management tools built right in their interface. Bluehost has everything you need from start-up to success.
Every plan from Bluehost also includes promotional tools such as $200 worth of credits (split between $100 for Google and $100 for Microsoft), so you can start growing your audience immediately. Get started quick using their one-click WordPress installer, useful WordPress tools, and 24/7 support.
HostGator
Offering users unlimited storage and bandwidth at very affordable plans, HostGator also has a 45-day money-back guarantee along with 24/7 support. Their plans come bundled with a free domain for the first year, and a free SSL certificate too. If you sign up for a 12 month account, you also get a free domain for the first year.
With HostGator, their WordPress hosting plans include a 45 day guarantee, a website builder, templates, and $100 in credits for Google AdWords to help your business get found on the web. Included in their WordPress hosting offering, you also have advanced security options, a simplified control panel, and free site migrations.
SiteGround
SiteGround is not only recommended by WordPress on their hosting page, but they are also recommended by some of the most popular WordPress plugins around, including WooCommerce and Yoast. Their managed WordPress hosting plans include WordPress installation, automated migrations, automatic updates, advanced caching, and expert WordPress support.
The WordPress Hosting plans you get from SiteGround also include 24/7/365 support. Additionally their plans come with a free CDN, an SSD persistent storage to provide optimal speed for your website performance, as well as high-level redundancy of your data allowing you to manage your WordPress sites easily, and with more freedom.
** Disclaimer: Sprout Invoices conducts extensive research for each of the reviews provided on this site and strives to provide a fair and accurate assessment of each provider's products and services. As a result of a transaction, Sprout Invoices may receive a small affiliate commission for purchases made.