If you have a website, then you are going to need web hosting. If you're not sure where to turn, we've created this list of the best WordPress hosting companies we've used and rely on.
What is web hosting? In its most basic definition, it's just storage for your website files and database that is accessible online.
Now that we've been doing this for over 13 years, we have a worked with a lot, and I mean A LOT, of web hosts. And we have some favorites. Please note that this list is developed based on our own experience with each company and their service to us and our clients, and is not dependent upon referral fees or credits. This list contains affiliate links - but any hosting company who does not meet our standards will be removed, regardless of referral credits.
My Favorite WordPress Hosts
Having worked with so many web hosts over the years, I have learned a lot about what I can and should expect when it comes to service. One thing I can say for sure is that not all hosting is created equal and you definitely get what you pay for.
My all-time favorite web host right now is Kinsta, and I'll tell you why. I've never had a web host that had such knowledgeable support, was so quick and easy to work with, and who provided such fast speeds for their websites.
SPEED
Speed is important. If your website takes more than 2 seconds to load, some people are going to leave. If it takes 8 seconds to load, forget about it.
I spend a lot of time optimizing sites we create to make them faster, but there's only so much we can do if the server isn't highly optimized. These are. I've seen sites jump from a 12 second load time to 1 second load time. That is huge.
SUPPORT
I have never encountered support from a host that is as knowledgable and friendly and eager to help as the team from Kinsta. So often I get on chat with a hosting support company and the support person has no idea what I'm talking about, or just gives me a standard one-size-fits-all reply that doesn't solve my problem.
With Kinsta, getting on their chat support is a different experience. They are quick to respond, and they know what they are doing. They have gone above and beyond on multiple occasions to make sure my site and my clients' sites perform well.
SCALABLE
If you've ever had a website get hit with a lot of traffic and go down, you know how annoying that is. Kinsta will never shut your site down for having extra traffic. If you go over your monthly limit, you just pay for what you use. Nothing more, and no sales calls to urge you to upgrade to the next level.
STAGING AND ONE-CLICK DEPLOY
The ability to make changes to a site and then quickly deploy those changes is a game changer for managing a high-traffic site.
Everything you want is included
I don't like paying for everything piece-meal. If I have a website, I want it to be fast. I want it to be sure. I want it to be backed up. I want it to be encrypted, and I don't want to have to pay for each of these things individually.
With Kinsta, it's all included. Your SSL is included, a CDN is included (which I don't often see from hosts), you don't have to worry about security because THEY HAVE IT TAKEN CARE OF.
It's my one-stop shop for the best web hosting around.
True, it's not the cheapest hosting on the block with the lowest priced plans starting at $30. But for the price, it's absolutely worth it.
I'm providing four different hosts at four different price points to give everyone the option of finding the best service they can afford.
Plans at Nexcess start at $19 for Managed WordPress hosting, but you can take 75% off the first four months to start as low as $4.75 a month. That gives you the option of trying it out to see if it's a good fit.
THINGS I LIKE
It has plenty of storage and bandwidth and includes 10 PHP workers, which will help insure your site doesn't get stuck during a big surge. It's fairly solid in terms of the platform, I don't see a lot of outages like I do on other sites, and the speed is pretty good.
Includes Free SSL, a staging site, free email, free migrations, and 24/7 support.
MDD is a new addition to my recommended hosts list, and came after many happy recommendations from other web developers. Here's the thing to know about web developers. We experience a lot of web hosts and we have opinions about them!
Plans at MDD Hosting start at $8.99 for Shared Cloud hosting.
THINGS I LIKE
This is a smaller company with more personal service and fast support. It has easy to use cPanel, Free Migrations, Unlimited bandwidth and email, free SSL, and Memcached Object Caching.
Includes Free SSL, Redis Object Caching, free migrations, off-site backups and 24/7 support.
I recognize that not every new website owner has the budget for a $30 a month web host, so I definitely wanted to include a lower priced option and SiteGround wins that spot.
With plans starting as low as $1.99 a month, it doesn't get much cheaper. (Although I'd recommend the GoGeek plan for $5.99.)
THINGS I LIKE
All plans come with SSL included and automated daily backups for all plans. All accounts come with PHP 7 by default. These are all things I believe should be standard for any web hosting company you chose.
If you buy one of the bigger plans, like the GrowBig or GoGeek, you also get a one-click staging site, which is super nice if you want to make some big changes to your site and test them before you take it live.
THINGS I DON'T LIKE
It doesn't include a CDN, which isn't a deal breaker, but is super nice when it's included. I don't like that the lowest tier doesn't include the staging server, but at the economy price, you will have to make concessions for options.
You may have noticed the disclosure at the top about affiliate links. That means that if you click through one of the links and purchase hosting, we receive a commission.
We only recommend companies that offer solid web hosting with great support and good features. Every one of these recommendations are based on our experience with that company either for our own site or working on our clients' sites. We have developed relationships with many of the real people behind these companies as well, which gives us better access to help and support that we may need.
The bottom line is that we would never recommend a company here that we haven't used and had a positive experience with. Our client's need solid web hosting, and we want them to have the best options.