I design and develop websites for clients, mostly using WordPress as a foundational framework. There are a few WordPress hosting options that I specifically recommend to my clients who need typical WordPress hosting.
Not in that order. I normally explain the benefits of one over the other.
WP Engine offers a premium WordPress hosting service starting at $29/month at the time of this writing. If you can afford that, then it is the best hosting option.
SiteGround is a top WordPress hosting option that offers premium hosting at shared hosting prices, (starting at $3.95/month at time of this writing). I do not use SiteGround but believe they are on par with or a better option than HostGator, who I use. Below is more detail about SiteGround.
HostGator is the company I use to host my own site and many of my client sites. I have used them for many years and find them to offer one of the best hosting solutions at shared hosting prices, (starting at $3.96/month at the time of this writing).
Hosting with me. I offer my own clients the additional option to host with me. I have a reseller hosting account with HostGator which allows me to offer HostGator’s hosting servers and hosting control panel to my clients, (which I like, know and otherwise recommend), but allows my clients to have me as their point man for their hosting needs. This allows my clients to have one person with which to work with regard to their website.
Most of my clients find me to be capable, friendly, helpful, and easy to work with. I know their website since I built it and I know their hosting service since they are hosting with me, which allows me to best serve them, and allows them to be best served. I charge a little more for this service than standard shared hosting costs because the value is greater and it takes extra time on my part.
Companies to avoid. There is only one company at this time that I specifically recommend my clients avoid for all hosting, and that is GoDaddy. I find their company as a whole to be crass, their website interface to be irritating and a huge waste of time, and their hosting servers to be very old, slow, overburdened, and constrained.
SiteGround WordPress Hosting
Overview
SiteGround has been an innovator since the beginning, offering premium WordPress hosting for shared hosting prices for many years. Recently I watched this video which I found insightful. Because it is 37 minutes long, I summarize below.
Speed
They compared their hosting service to 12 other common shared hosting services and found their lowest priced plan to exceed 11 of the 12 in speed. When they compared their next tier priced plan, (starting at $7.95/month at time of this writing), that includes their “SuperCacher”, they far exceeded all other hosts in speed.
Here is a short video about their speed.
Security
Again with Security they compared their service to the 12 others and again found only 4 of the other hosts implemented their hosting solution in such a way as to isolate their client sites from each other so that one site being affected by an attack would not affect other sites. And with regard to how they approached dealing with software vulnerabilities, they found they were the only one that proactively put patches in place server-wide to protect client sites until patches were made available and client’s updated their sites.
Here is a short video about their security.
Support
They tested phone support, chat support and ticket system support for their 12 hosting companies and found again that they scored highest in all three categories. Looking at their results, and having contacted different hosting companies many hundreds of times over the years, I can attest that their is a huge difference in wait times and how truly supportive the support is, both in intent and capability.
Here is a short video about their support
Who should you use? Any of the hosting options I recommend above are excellent choices and you cannot go wrong with any of them.
If you have experience with any of the hosting companies above, please share your feedback. If you decide to use a hosting company based on this review, please let us know and then come back and share your feedback. And if you are interested in my other recommended services you can read about them here.
May you have good hosting!
