The Best WordPress Hosting Services of 2023
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WordPress is a highly configurable, open-source, free platform that enables users to quickly and easily build websites and blogs with a professional appearance. You need a web hosting company in order to launch a WordPress website. Fortunately, WordPress-specific site hosting platforms are widely available.
We’ll examine the top three WordPress hosting options in this study, which work for both small and large commercial firms.
Best for Beginners: ASPHostPortal
Why we choose it: In order to keep up with technical advancements and make automatic WordPress installations and configuration simple for new users, ASPHostPortal—one of the few hosting providers that WordPress recommends—regularly redesigns its user interface.
A wide range of expert services are available to users just getting started with WordPress, including automatic WordPress installation, custom themes, SEO marketing, malware scanning, and daily backups.
The Online Store package from ASPHostPortal gives access to the e-commerce features like unlimited product listings, safe online payments, shipping labels, and more for business owners who wish to launch an online store. In addition, ASPHostPortal provides round-the-clock support if you experience any issues with your website.
Best for Security: AWS
Why we chose it: AWS security is unparalleled, with security standards from nearly every regulatory body, including PCI-DSS, HIPAA/HITECH, FedRAMP, GDPR, FIPS 140-2 and NIST 800-171 compliance.
Amazon Web Services, also known as AWS, is the leading cloud-hosting provider responsible for hosting over a third of all the websites hosted on the cloud.
AWS also offers the Lightsail solution, which allows users to launch pre-configured virtual private servers (VPS) to cater to a range of needs. This can be particularly useful for WordPress plugins or an app developer needing cloud-based computational power.
Best for Speed: IONOS
Why we chose it: The platform’s speed, reliability and low starting price make IONOS a solid recommendation, as does its SSL support and ability to act as an ICANN-accredited domain registrar.
IONOS has been around since 1998, making it one of the few WordPress hosting companies with decades of experience. The company uses data centers that are optimized for WordPress websites, ensuring that loading times are minimized. Additionally, they provide SSD storage, which is faster than traditional hard drives and can reduce website load times.
Additionally, IONOS uses a content delivery network (CDN), which helps improve site performance by distributing content across multiple servers worldwide. Lastly, the company offers caching solutions such as Varnish and Memcached, which can further enhance website speed by storing frequently accessed data in memory for faster retrieval.
WordPress Hosting Guide
In this section, we explain how WordPress hosting works and how much the service costs. We also review the factors you should consider when selecting a WordPress hosting service.
How does WordPress hosting work?
WordPress web hosting provides a faster and more secure hosting experience designed for sites running exclusively on the WordPress platform. Users can choose a web hosting service that specializes in WordPress but many of the best web hosting companies also offer products optimized for WordPress.
WordPress hosting services offer features such as automatic updates, caching and enhanced security features. Hosting typically involves installing WordPress software and other related plugins onto a hosting server, setting up the necessary databases and configuring everything for fast and secure performance.
What is the average cost of WordPress hosting?
The average user can expect to pay anywhere from $2.95 to $35 per month. That said, the cost of WordPress hosting varies widely, depending on the hosting package you choose and whether it’s a managed WordPress hosting service or a virtual private server.
Some features that affect the price include:
- Bandwidth allotment
- Fast SSD storage
- Access to WooCommerce (considered one of the best online store builders) or other e-commerce packages
- Website security
- Email accounts
Additionally, the amount of traffic and storage space required for your website can also affect the cost of hosting. Depending on your needs and budget, you may want to choose a more expensive package to ensure your website is properly maintained and running smoothly.
Users should also note that the advertised prices are often promotional rates valid during the first term only. Once the first term expires (the term duration can range from a month to 36 months, depending on your plan), the provider will likely increase the cost of the service to the regular rate.
How to choose a WordPress hosting provider
To choose the best WordPress hosting service, run through the following checklist and note how the provider fares in each category.
Reputation
Choose an established hosting provider known for its value and reliability. Read multiple reviews and look for reviews that mention the company’s uptime, customer service and load time ratings.
Affordability
Be sure to compare the cost of different hosting plans across providers so you’re not paying more than necessary for the basic features and services. Some web hosting plans are more expensive than others but may offer valuable hosting tools for that price increase. Depending on your website’s needs, some add-ons may be worth a slightly higher monthly fee.
Features and tools
Review hosting offers and identify the features that are important to you, for example, unlimited email, unlimited storage, unmetered bandwidth or a 30-day money-back guarantee. Other useful features include one-click WordPress installation, databases and third-party applications.
Security
Choose a hosting provider that offers secure hosting, such as SSL encryption with a provided SSL certificate and malware scanning. If anything should go wrong, you’ll want to be able to rely on daily backups and a support team with good response time.
Customer support
It’s a good idea to ensure the hosting solution you choose offers the support you need, such as 24/7 customer service with multiple help channels available (online chat, phone number, help desk and tutorials).
Scalability
Choose a hosting provider that can grow with your website, such as one that offers additional storage and bandwidth. Newer users or startup businesses might overlook this detail but preparing for this situation can help avoid potential headaches down the road.
How to set up WordPress hosting
Setting up WordPress hosting can seem mystifying, but it’s a reasonably straightforward process.
First, you’ll need to purchase a domain name and a web hosting account with the provider of your choice. That is, unless you’re opting for one of the free hosting packages available on WordPress.com.
Once you have these two components, install WordPress by following the instructions provided by your web hosting company. After you complete the installation, it’s time to pick a theme. WordPress has varied design themes and layouts to suit all types of websites, be it an e-commerce site or a travel blog.
Lastly, browse through the available WordPress plugins to expand your site’s functionality and customize it as needed.
How to migrate from one hosting provider to another
Migrating from one hosting provider to another can sometimes be challenging. Still, there are steps you can take to make it easier and mitigate any downtime. Some providers will even take care of the transfer for you.
- Backup your WordPress site. Use plugins like BackupBuddy, Duplicator or BackWPup to create a complete backup. You can download it, store it on your computer or a cloud storage service
- Export your WordPress database with WordPress’s built-in WordPress Export tool. You can export all your posts, pages and content, enabling you to import it to your new host.
- Update the database name and user. Configure the new WordPress host to use the same database name and user as your old host. You’ll also need to configure your DNS settings through your domain name registrar to point to the new host.
- Transfer files to the new host. Move all the files from your old host to the new one and test your WordPress on the new host to ensure everything works properly. It’s also a good idea to monitor your new WordPress host closely for the first week or so in case some problems aren’t immediately obvious.
