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Best Managed WP Hosting
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Best Shared WP Hosting | |
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There are hundreds of website hosting providers out there to choose from, but if you have a WordPress site, you may want to consider a host that specializes in WordPress. This is especially true if you have a larger site that could suffer from slow loading times or serious security problems (these are both potential issues with WordPress).
We’ve found some of the best WordPress hosting options that can help you minimize the platform’s potential pitfalls and still get the reliability, price and time-saving benefits you need from a top-notch hosting provider.
Article Overview
- Shared vs Managed Hosting
- Best Managed Providers
- Best Shared Providers
- Other Providers To Consider
- Hosting Options Outside WordPress
Shared vs Managed WordPress Hosting
If you opt for shared hosting, you get a finite amount of space within a server (the server is “shared” among many clients) in exchange for a very reduced cost. Depending on the host, you don’t necessarily get servers that are optimized for the WordPress CMS (Content Management System). See our comparison of the top CMS platforms to see how WordPress fared.
Also worth noting is that managed doesn’t necessarily equal “dedicated.” The term “dedicated” means you get your own server. The lower tiered managed plans tend to follow a “shared” model, whereas the higher tiered ones follow a VPS or dedicated model. If this all sounds greek, feel free to skip across to our hosting types comparison quick to learn the difference between shared, dedicated, and VPS hosting.
Some providers, like the ones we’ve chosen as our top 3 shared hosting services, do have shared servers tailored for WordPress — you just don’t get as many dedicated features and things like backups and caching taken off your hands.
7 Pros To Managed Hosting
With WordPress-managed hosting, you typically get less-crowded server space and a premium hosting experience. Other benefits typically include:
- Tech support experts that can help you with specific WordPress issues.
- Optimized loading speeds for known WordPress speed concerns.
- Higher security for specific threats against WordPress.
- Regular backups can be troublesome if you’re doing it DIY.
- Automatic caching and updates.
- Better scalability (servers capable of increasing your resources and traffic if you need it as your site grows).
- WordPress-specific developer tools to help you save precious time and manpower.
Managed Hosting – Cons
What are some of the cons of going the managed route? Of course, managed WordPress hosting typically costs more than shared hosting. And if you choose a provider that solely specializes in WordPress hosting, like our top 3 picks for a managed solution, you won’t be able to use them if you decide to switch away from WordPress in the future.
Best Managed WordPress Hosting
We’ve chosen our rankings based on reliability, performance, reputation, features, customer service, pricing and other factors.
Note: These managed WordPress hosting providers are better suited to larger sites and/or bigger budgets. Each of our top picks for best shared hosting also offers good managed WordPress hosting solutions which could be a better fit for your budget. So we encourage you to consider those as well. Jump to that section.
Winner: Kinsta Review
Kinsta has been specializing in WordPress hosting for over 10 years. Although they’re a smaller player in the managed WP hosting space, this doesn’t mean that they skimp on features. Kinsta offers highly optimized servers powered by the Google Cloud Platform. The company also does uptime checks every two minutes on all of its servers.
All plans give you free site migrations, a free CDN and SSL, site backups and cloning, caching and much more. Kinsta is also developer-friendly with WP-CLI, SSH, and Git support. However, they have their own admin panel, so devotees of cPanel or Plesk may want to look elsewhere.
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Pricing
The following are just a handful of the 10 different pricing plans they offer.
| Starter | Pro | Business 1 | Business 3 | Enterprise 1 | Enterprise 3 | |
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| Price/Month | $30 | $60 | $100 | $300 | $600 | $1,200 |
| WP Installs | 1 | 2 | 5 | 20 | 60 | 120 |
| Monthly Visits | 20,000 | 40,000 | 100,000 | 400,000 | 1 million | 2 million |
| SSD Storage | 10GB | 20GB | 30GB | 50GB | 100GB | 200GB |
Runner-Up: WP Engine Review
WP Engine has been a leading managed WordPress hosting provider for years now. It’s the only hosting service they offer, and they do it well, delivering optimized uptime, speed, security and scalability. You also get a lot of tools and features tailored to make WordPress easy to maintain and enhance.
All plans include 36 StudioPress themes, SSL, CDN, one-click staging, free site migration, WordPress (WP) development and design tools, two-factor authentication (2FA) and much more. WP Engine isn’t the most affordable pricing you’ll find so it may not be the best option for small businesses or bloggers. But if you’re looking for a solid managed solution, it’s worth serious consideration.
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Pricing
You can save more than 16% off the following pricing if you prepay annually.
| Startup | Growth | Scale | Custom | |
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| Price/Month | $35 | $115 | $290 | Must contact |
| # of Websites | 1 | 5 | 15 | 25 |
| Visits/Month | 25,000 | 100,000 | 400,000 | Millions |
| Local Storage | 10GB | 20GB | 30GB | 100GB – 1TB |
| Bandwidth | 50GB | 200GB | 400GB | 400+GB |
3rd Place: Liquid Web Review
Liquid Web is a premium hosting service that’s best suited for experienced website managers. They offer managed WordPress, managed cloud, VPS (virtual private server) and dedicated hosting solutions with servers optimized for speed and performance. Their managed WordPress hosting gives you free site migrations, staging sites, SSL, automatic updates and iThemes sync.
Liquid Web also stands apart for having no overage fees, traffic limits or metered page views — a level of scalability you won’t find with Kinsta or WP Engine. However, their uptime historically falls a bit short compared to these 2 companies.
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Pricing
All plans include 5TB bandwidth. They also offer customizable enterprise solutions starting at $575 per month for 100+ websites.
| Personal | Freelance | Professional | Business | Agency | |
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| Price/Month | $29 | $69 | $99 | $149 | $289 |
| # of Websites | 1 | 4 | 10 | 25 | 50 |
| SSD Storage | 20GB | 40GB | 100GB | 150GB | 200GB |
Best Shared WordPress Hosting
We’ve chosen our rankings based on reliability, performance, reputation, features, customer service, pricing and other factors.
Winner: SiteGround Review
SiteGround is one of the top shared hosting services on the market, and they also offer exceptional managed WordPress hosting for a very competitive price. Whether you go with their shared or managed hosting, their servers are optimized to address the unique speed and security needs for WordPress.
SiteGround offers free WordPress site transfers, one-click staging, built-in WP caching, a free CDN, pre-installed Git for WordPress and much more. And SiteGround’s WordPress experts are available 24/7 for quick and reliable tech support.
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Pricing
The following is for SiteGround’s managed WordPress hosting. You have to upgrade to higher plans to get all features. Their shared hosting plan pricing is the same as managed pricing.
| StartUp | GrowBig | GoGeek | |
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| Introductory Price/Month | $3.95 | $5.95 | $11.95 |
| Regular Price/Month | $11.95 | $19.95 | $34.95 |
| # of Websites | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Web Space | 10GB | 20GB | 30GB |
| # of Visits Monthly | 10,000 | 25,000 | 100,000 |
Read Our In-Depth Review of SiteGround
Runner-Up: A2 Hosting Review
A2 Hosting has been around for nearly 15 years and has really upped its services for both shared and managed WordPress hosting solutions in the last several years. Some of their strengths include being developer-friendly and offering high security and fast speeds, all in a WordPress-optimized environment.
Their managed WP hosting features include easy backups, site staging, pre-installed Git and WP-CLI, a Jetpack personal license and 24/7/365 access to their “Guru Crew.” Managed hosting also uses the Plesk control panel, rather than cPanel that comes with their DIY shared hosting option.
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Pricing
Shared WP hosting: starts at $2.96/month (introductory price) with a $7.99/month renewal price.
The following prices are for A2 Hosting’s managed hosting services. Unlike SiteGround, A2 Hosting gives you all of their features with each pricing level.
| 1-Site | 3-Sites | Unlimited | |
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| Introductory Price/Month | $9.78 | $15.50 | $30.19 |
| Regular Price/Month | $24.46 | $38.75 | $75.48 |
| Storage Space | 10GB | 25GB | 40GB |
| Cores | 2 x 2.4 | 3 x 2.4 | 4 x 2.4 |
3rd Place: DreamHost Review
DreamHost is another popular WordPress hosting service that powers more than 600,000 WP sites. They offer shared, managed and VPS options, each optimized for the CMS. All of their WordPress plans include one-click installers, auto-updates, automated backups, a WP website builder and free SSL, SSDs and domain name.
Migrating your site is $99 if you go with their shared plan, but it’s included in their managed and VPS plans. Their managed hosting solution (called DreamPress) also gives you one-click staging, built-in caching, 24/7 access to their U.S.-based WP experts. While more expensive, their VPS plans for WP give you much more dedicated server space.
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Pricing
The following prices are introductory rates. We couldn’t locate renewal rates on their site.
- Shared WP hosting: starts at $4.95/month
- Managed WP Pro hosting: starts at $19.95/month
- VPS WP hosting: starts at $27.95/month
Read Our In-Depth Review of DreamHost
What About BlueHost and HostGator?
Below are reviews of companies that didn’t make our rankings this year, but they could be perfect for your unique needs.
Bluehost Review
Bluehost has become a huge name in the WordPress hosting arena, and they have many fans. They offer shared and managed WordPress hosting solutions (and a WooCommerce hosting plan) at competitive prices. With shared hosting, you get WP-optimized servers, one-click installs, automatic updates, WP staging, a free domain name for a year and more.
Their WP Pro managed hosting is a relative newcomer compared to some of the other companies we review here. You get a lot of bang for your buck — all plans include unlimited sites and domains, unlimited storage, no traffic limits, free SSL and the same WP features you get with the shared plans.
Unfortunately, we’ve seen a lot of customer complaints about technical problems and poor customer service — enough to keep Bluehost out of our top 3 picks.
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Pricing
- Shared WP hosting: starts at $3.95/month (introductory price) with a $7.99/month renewal price.
- WP Pro hosting: starts at $19.95/month (introductory) with a $29.99/month renewal price.
HostGator Review
HostGator is an extremely popular hosting provider that offers shared and managed WordPress hosting in addition to VPS and dedicated hosting. You get one-click WordPress installation, optimized servers, auto backups, a free domain name and SSL and more. Unfortunately, their managed plans don’t give you unlimited site hosting and advanced WP features. And their customer support isn’t up to par with other providers we review here.
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Pricing
The following prices are introductory rates. We couldn’t locate renewal rates on their site.
- Shared hosting: starts at $2.95/month
- Managed WordPress hosting: starts at $5.95/month
Read Our In-Depth Review of HostGator
Hosting Options Outside WordPress Specialized Providers
If you’re not sold on managed WordPress hosting or even the best shared WordPress hosting options, be sure to check out our ultimate reviews of the best web hosting services you can find. These hosting solutions allow you to house both WordPress and non-WordPress sites for reliable service and performance.
And although several of our top picks here, particularly for shared hosting, offer free domain registration, we recommend going with a different company. Hosting and domain registration are very different services, and it’s very difficult for one company to specialize in both. See our best domain registrar services to learn more.
Finally, if you want to save time finding the best WordPress plugins available, look no further than this article that highlights some of the most affordable and reliable plugins you can find for everything from backups and multisite support to calendars and maps.
What features are most important to you in web hosting? Let us know in the comments!
