Expersight Intelligence
WordPress, a free and open-source content management system (CMS), enables the creation of blogs, portfolios, eCommerce websites, etc…Almost one-third of the websites in the market are powered by WordPress. As WordPress gained popularity, many web hosting companies have started to offer WordPress-specific services. There are so many web hosting companies for WordPress, it is important that you choose the right one according to your needs.
For your content, website or blog to reach a large number of people, it is essential to ensure that your website functions efficiently and loads well (fast). The next step is to ensure that your customers are having a good experience when they visit your website. For this, the website should have good uptime and high load speed. In addition to this, while selecting the web hosting provider, make sure that they provide high-quality customer support at an affordable price while also providing security to your website. There are 4 main types of hosting for WordPress, namely:
- Managed WordPress hosting
- Shared WordPress hosting
- VPS WordPress hosting
- Dedicated WordPress hosting
Managed WordPress hosting
Managed WordPress hosting services offer packages of services and features for WordPress websites that are beneficial for the proper functioning of a website. The services include caching and backup services, staging environment creation, automatic WordPress updates and regular security checks.
Pros: Managed WordPress hosting ensures if websites are fast and offer high-quality websites with 99.99% uptime. Most importantly, Managed hosting provides 24/7 customer support through emails, phone calls and online chat.
When it comes to security and backup, managed hosting providers constantly update plugins and provides the user with an SSL certificate. It can also detect vulnerabilities and protect your website from malicious attacks.
Cons: The major disadvantage with managed hosting is that it is very expensive.
Shared WordPress hosting
Shared hosting as the name suggests, hosts multiple websites on a single physical server. Because of this the web pages automatically get lower speeds and experience some malfunctions as the resources have been shared by many other sites. Although, there are noticeable advantages to using the shared resources.
Pros: Though the users understand the risk of adopting shared services, they still choose these services for the price that they offer. Shared services monthly subscription billing can be as low as $3. But these days, there are managed service providers that can offer the same services at the same price as shared services. As a result of this, shared hosting services have lost its importance in the market.
Shared hosting services are not just cheap and easy, but also provide tools that can be accessed by anyone to build websites. They are also highly user-friendly as they offer drag and drop options to create a website rather than writing hundreds of lines of code.
Cons: As mentioned above, in shared hosting, many websites are hosted on a single physical server. Hence the web page loads noticeably slower thus affecting the performance of the website.
VPS WordPress hosting
VPS (Virtual Private Server) hosting divides the physical server into various virtual servers. Since one website is virtually separated from the other, the performance of the website exponentially increases and does not experience a lot of technical issues.
Pros: VPS hosting provides full control over your website as it allows root access to the hardware, software and customization. VPS also protects against DDoS attacks as each website is virtually isolated.
Cons: VPS hosting is found to be much more expensive than managed hosting services.
Dedicated WordPress hosting
In dedicated hosting, the user is provided with an entire physical server for his website. This kind of hosting is very efficient for e-commerce websites and websites that require larger resources, security and flexibility for better performance.
Pros: As an entire server is dedicated just for your website, it increases the functionality and performance of your website. Offers security and complete control over the website.
Cons: Since one full server is dedicated for your purpose and the provider has to maintain and upgrade the server, which is not a simple task, this method of hosting is costlier than all of the above-mentioned hosting services.
Some of the best web hosting providers for WordPress are mentioned below:
1) InMotion
InMotion is one of the most reliable hosting providers in the market today. Either for hosting a new website or changing the hosting provider for the existing website, InMotion would be the best choice.
Advantages: There is a 90-day-money-back guarantee in case if the user is not satisfied with the services. They offer outstanding customer service, higher uptime rates and fast page loading.
Website: https://www.inmotionhosting.com/
2) Hostgator
Hostgator is one of the largest and most popular hosting providers with over 8 million domains. Hostgator offers various kinds of hosting services such as managed, shared, VPS and dedicated hosting services.
Advantages: Hostgator provides 99.99% uptime, 24/7 customer support. It is very reliable and increases the performance of websites and provides features that help creating efficient websites. Hostgator also offers a 45-day money-back guarantee and a very flexible billing plan.
Website: https://www.hostgator.com/
3) Interserver
Interserver, a complete web hosting service provider, offers 24/7 high quality customer support via email, online chat and phone calls. They provide exquisite features that greatly help in easily creating and maintaining your websites.
Advantages: Interserver guarantees 99.9% uptime and offers unlimited storage and bandwidth at very low prices.
Website: https://www.interserver.net/
4) Siteground
Siteground offers shared hosting services along with other hosting services such as dedicated hosting or cloud hosting. Depending on the plan, storage and database capacities vary. Siteground provides impeccable customer service 24/7 via mail, phone calls or online chat.
Advantages: Siteground offers excellent uptime, high-speed hosting services and user-friendly features.
Drawbacks: Siteground is considered to be slightly overpriced and they support only professional migration for which the user is expected to pay $30. But there is a free plugin in WordPress for migration.
Website: https://www.siteground.com/
5) GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks provides hosting services for all range of companies ranging from startups to large enterprises. Their plans are also very affordable and they offer a variety of useful tools.
Advantages: GreenGeeks offer high-speed and performance when it comes to page loading and uptime, various useful tools and flexible pricing plans. They also provide top-notch customer support.
Website: https://www.greengeeks.com/
6) DreamHost
Dreamhost is a well-known service provider among developers, designers and digital marketers. Dreamhost offers unlimited storage, bandwidth and free SSL certificates. Dreamhost exclusively offers WordPress hosting services.
Advantages: Dreamhost offers almost a 100-day money-back guarantee, very flexible pricing that is also affordable, unlimited bandwidth and storage.
Drawbacks: Dreamhost is supported only for the US region as they have no servers outside the US. They also don’t provide 24/7 customer support.
Website: https://www.dreamhost.com/wordpress/vps-wp-hosting/
7) BlueHost
Bluehost is considered to be the official WordPress recommended hosting provider. Of late, Bluehost powers more than 2 million websites.
Advantages: Bluehost provides a very flexible pricing plan that is best suited for enterprises as well as start-ups. Since it powers various websites with minimum downtime, it is very reliable and Bluehost also offers a free domain for a year initially when the user signs up.
Drawbacks: Domain renewal price is comparatively higher than the other providers.
Website: https://www.bluehost.com/
The above-mentioned list contains some of the well-known and most prominent web hosting providers for WordPress. There are still so many companies that provide considerably good hosting services. Depending on your needs and budget, selecting the best hosting services will greatly help in scaling your business by making your website noticeable in the market.
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