🏆 The Top 10 WordPress Hosting Companies: Pros and Cons
If you're looking to host your WordPress website, you're probably overwhelmed by the number of hosting companies out there. In this article, we'll go over the top 10 WordPress hosting companies one by one and talk about the pros and cons for every single one of these companies. By the end of this article, you'll know exactly which company you should go with to host your WordPress website. As a bonus, we have links down below in the description that'll get you discounts on your WordPress hosting no matter which company you choose.
Table of Contents
1. [Py Ground](#py-ground)
2. [Blue Host](#blue-host)
3. [GoDaddy](#godaddy)
4. [A2 Hosting](#a2-hosting)
5. [HostGator](#hostgator)
6. [WP Engine](#wp-engine)
7. [In Motion](#in-motion)
8. [Dreamhost](#dreamhost)
9. [Hostinger](#hostinger)
10. [The Best Overall Hosting Company](#the-best-overall-hosting-company)
Py Ground
Py Ground is one of the three companies recommended by WordPress themselves as a recommended host. It's very easy to set up a WordPress or a WooCommerce website using Py Ground as your host. They also have very affordable pricing, though they're not the most affordable host. They're also very reliable, with fast servers. If you sign up with Py Ground, you'll get a free SSL certificate as well. An SSL certificate will make sure that all communications that happen via your website are secure. You especially need an SSL certificate if you're planning on taking credit card payments or having passwords or anything that there needs to be protection for your users.
As far as cons go for Py Ground, their pricing is mid-tier, though recently they did lower their prices a little bit. Normally their prices are quite a bit higher than some of the other companies. Another huge con with Py Ground is they have pretty low amounts of storage with their lowest plan. You can only have one website and you only get 10 GB of web space. You're only allowed around 10,000 monthly visits, which means if you're planning on uploading a lot of images and videos to your website, Py Ground might not be the best option for you. They also have high renewal fees, which means that you pay a low price when you first sign up, but after your initial period, if you do want to renew your contract and keep your website, you're going to have to pay really high fees. Py Ground is also not available in every country. It's not available in India, for instance.
Blue Host
Blue Host is also recommended by WordPress themselves and it's also probably one of the most popular hosting companies. That's because it's one of the most trusted companies out there. The first time I ever purchased hosting, I purchased it from Blue Host. But if I were to purchase WordPress hosting again today, knowing everything that I know, I would not choose Blue Host. They do have relatively cheap plans, and part of the reason why they have such cheap plans and they're able to offer such cheap prices is because what they do is they go around and they buy smaller hosting companies and they aggregate them into a giant conglomerate of a company.
The biggest con I have with Blue Host is that they're actually overpriced. I've had a ton of issues using Blue Host in the past, including the page speed being very slow. Page speed is how fast your website loads when someone goes to your website. If it takes a long time for your page to load, they're going to leave your page, and you're going to lose that sale and you're going to lose that visitor. The fact that Blue Host took a very long time for load speed is a huge problem. One of the things that nobody talks about with Blue Host, and the reason they were able to get so popular, is because they were one of the first hosting companies to offer an affiliate program. This is where people would create websites promoting Blue Host. This made it so people would promote Blue Host over the other hosting companies because they'd make money by being an affiliate for Blue Host, even though the other companies were better than Blue Host. Nowadays, pretty much every hosting company out there has an affiliate program.
GoDaddy
GoDaddy is a company that I see so many people get trapped into using because this company did do an amazing job with brand recognition. But you need to know that there are some huge cons with going with this company. Luckily, I'm here to help, so pay attention. There's not a lot of pros with using GoDaddy as your hosting company. They are a fine company to get a domain name from. This is where you buy your www. whatever your website is. But even for that, they are overpriced. Namecheap.com is cheap, and the one pro that I could think of is that they do have phone support, and that's literally the only pro I can think of with this company. But if phone support is what tips the scales for you, all these companies have phone support too.
There are so many cons with using GoDaddy as your hosting company. First off, they're overpriced. GoDaddy spends a ton of money on marketing, getting people to buy the domain name, and their domain names are actually not terribly priced, even though, as I mentioned, you can get cheaper domain names. But the way they really make their money is by upselling people to buy things like the hosting and all kinds of extra features you don't really need. The plans and pricing don't really make sense, and the user interface to creating a website is confusing, to say the least. On top of all that, support can actually be very rude, and I know a lot of people that have had bad experiences with GoDaddy support.
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting is one of the fastest hosting providers, so if you want a website that's going to be really fast, A2 Hosting is a good option. They also have decent pricing for the kind of speeds that they're offering. However, for cons, they have relatively poor uptime. Their uptime is around 99.96%, which sounds good, but it's on the lower side. For those of you that don't know, uptime is how often your website is actually going to be available. You would think that your uptime should be 100%, but it's actually not true because just like your electricity occasionally goes out, your website will occasionally go out. But the better hosting companies will have a higher uptime rating. Part of the reason why I don't recommend A2 Hosting is they actually got hacked a few years ago, and it seems like they were never able to bounce back. The back end of A2 Hosting can also be relatively confusing, and it's not the most beginner-friendly hosting company to start your first website.
HostGator
HostGator is another popular WordPress hosting company. They have good customer service and relatively affordable prices. But here's a dirty little secret about HostGator: they're actually owned by the same parent company that owns Blue Host. And since HostGator and Blue Host are owned by the same company, and HostGator is usually a little bit more expensive, I would recommend if you're thinking about these two to check the pricing down below in the description and just see which one is cheaper because sometimes one of them will have discount pricing. So if you are thinking about these two, which I don't recommend, just go with whichever one is cheaper.
WP Engine
WP Engine is fast and reliable. It has great customer support, and overall, it's probably the most professional and arguably the best hosting company out there, except for the fact that it's 10 times the price of all the other hosting companies. That being said, it is a great hosting company, and if you don't want to get involved in any of the technical stuff, you want to have a website that's going to have really high uptime, great speed, and great support, and you have a lot of money to spend, then WP Engine might be a good option for you. But I personally would not recommend them because they are overpriced.
In Motion
In Motion is another popular hosting company, but I couldn't really find a lot of pros for them. They do have good speed compared to a lot of the other hosting companies out there, but as a con, they're just more expensive, and you don't really get anything extra for that extra money that you're spending within In Motion. It's also one of the slower hosting providers out there.
Dreamhost
Dreamhost is the third company that is recommended by WordPress themselves, but other than that, I don't see any advantages for going with Dreamhost. They're more expensive, slower, and less reliable than most of the other companies we've talked about so far. They also have poor uptime, and the prices continue to go up despite the fact that their service isn't great.
Hostinger
Hostinger is the most affordable hosting company out there, and I do have the hookup with them. There's a link down below in the description that you can use to take advantage of that discounted pricing. Hostinger only costs around $2 per month, but the crazy thing about this company is they're actually really good. They're fast, reliable, and have an easy one-click setup for setting up your WordPress or WooCommerce website. With Hostinger, it's so easy to create a website if you sign up with them that you can do it in just a few minutes. They also operate pretty much all over the place, and their service is available in over 40 different languages.
There are some cons with Hostinger, though. First off, they don't offer phone support. So if that is something that's important to you, Hostinger is probably not the right option. The back end can also be a little bit glitchy at times. They have their own patented H panel. Most companies use C panel, and you have to license that technology. They use what's called H panel, and it's one of the reasons why they are able to be cheaper than a lot of the competitor companies. Usually, it works really well, but sometimes you might run into some issues with H panel, though it's gotten a lot better over the years. Another thing to note is they do have relatively high renewal fees. So I recommend when you sign up, sign up for as long of a term as possible.
The Best Overall Hosting Company
It really depends on what you want. If you want the fastest hosting company out there, I'd go with A2 Hosting. If you want the most reliable hosting company, go with WP Engine. But now I'm going to reveal what I think is the best overall hosting company and which one you should go with. It's really almost a tie between Py Ground and Hostinger. Py Ground has great options, and they have different tiers of plans. You can get up to 40 GB of web space, unlimited websites, and your page can load up to 30% faster than other providers, which means you'll get more sales faster. Hostinger, however, wins for the best hosting company because they allow you to store hundreds of gigabytes of data. You can create hundreds of different websites, even with their cheapest plan. You also get a free domain name, free email, and unlimited free SSLs. On top of all this, Hostinger has data centers all over the world, and their website builder makes it extremely easy to build a website. You can use all their different AI tools to build a website in seconds. And you get all this from Hostinger for about a third of the price that you'd be paying on Py Ground.
I will say there is one huge con about Hostinger that I haven't talked about yet, and that is they are constantly raising their prices. When I first found out about them, it was only 99 cents a month. Now it's over $2 a month. So if you are looking to create your own WordPress website, I would sign up fast for Hostinger before they do increase their prices. You can use coupon code Travis to get an extra 10% off your hosting. So get started today and click on the link down below in the description to get discounted pricing on whatever hosting company you choose. Again, I recommend Hostinger. But whichever one you choose, make sure you get that huge hookup price discount.
Highlights
- Py Ground is recommended by WordPress themselves and has affordable pricing, but their storage and renewal fees are a bit lacking.
- Blue Host is overpriced and has slow page speed, despite being one of the most popular hosting companies.
- GoDaddy is overpriced and has poor support and confusing user interface.
- A2 Hosting is fast but has poor uptime and a confusing back end.
- HostGator is owned by the same parent company as Blue Host and is more expensive.
- WP Engine is overpriced but has great customer support and is reliable.
- In Motion is more expensive and slower than most other hosting companies.
- Dreamhost is recommended by WordPress but is more expensive, slower, and less reliable than most other hosting companies.
- Hostinger is the most affordable hosting company and has great features, but doesn't offer phone support and has a glitchy back end.
- Hostinger is the best overall hosting company, with great features and affordable pricing.
FAQ
Q: What is the most affordable hosting company?
A: Hostinger is the most affordable hosting company, with plans starting at just $2 per month.
Q: What is the most reliable hosting company?
A: WP Engine is the most reliable hosting company, with great customer support and high uptime.
Q: What is the fastest hosting company?
A: A2 Hosting is the fastest hosting company, with great speeds and decent pricing.
Q: What is the best overall hosting company?
A: Hostinger is the best overall hosting company, with great features and affordable pricing.
