Selecting a web hosting service would not seem to be a big deal. It’s just a matter of finding one that offers speed, reliability, security, and has a good backup system; and you’re good to go.
It’s not quite that simple, however.
Everyone needs hosting when setting up a website. Servers are what websites are hosted on. There are many different approaches to web hosting. These can include shared hosting, cloud hosting, dedicated server hosting, and much more.
Hosting for web designers and developers is what this post is all about. We realize you need a web hosting provider that is cost-efficient (so there’s not a tight squeeze on their wallet, and they’re getting their money’s worth), reliable (so their website rarely has downtime), and has great customer support (so they can have all their questions answered / changes made, etc).
Editors Note
At the time of the post, which was back in 2009, we did not know about Kinsta WordPress Hosting. They have become our new favorite and trust them with our (2) sites, WebDesignDev.com & Line25.com.
We recommend you take a closer look at what we discovered in 2022. If you need specific WordPress hosting, then you have to check out Kinsta. They are all about speed, security, and WordPress.
We put together a detailed review entitled “Kinsta WordPress Hosting Review – Best Choice For 2022?
WordPress Hosting Providers
If you’re looking specifically for a WordPress hosting provider, we’ve compiled a detailed comparison of the top 10 Best WordPress Hosting Providers to compare in 2022.
There’s a difference between a general Web Host and a focused WordPress Host. Hosting companies have their strengths and weaknesses just like any other company. It’s important to separate those companies who are experts in all things WordPress if that’s your CMS (content management system) of choice.
Business owners understand the value of web content that is capable of attracting and engaging users. They also understand the need for a web presence that will capture and maintain the attention of the ever-growing number of mobile device users. What they don’t always understand, however, is the often-critical role a hosting service plays in determining the ultimate success of their websites.
When you go about selecting a hosting service, the devil is in the details. You need to do more than simply skim over a list of promises. Fortunately, of the many great companies that would like to have you as a client, a few stand head and shoulders above the rest.
So to save web designers and developers time, I have compiled a list of some of the best hosting solutions. I myself use HostGator for all my private sites, but there are many others out there that provide simply outstanding service.
HostGator
HostGator is one of the worlds leading hosts in shared, reseller, and dedicated hosting. Use Hostgator Coupon Code: “Retireat21” and the first month is only 1 cent!
SiteGround
SiteGround hosting service has been in business for 13 years, and their staff has grown from 3 to more than 400 people with global operations supported by five data centers located on three continents. Their business has never had to rely on outside investors and that helped them focus entirely on their platform and invest on what matters the most (Speed, Security, Support). All that helped them achieve a nearly perfect 99.99% Uptime server performance. Additionally, they offer developer/designer-friendly tools like staging for WordPress and Joomla, GIT integration, Automatic WordPress updates, WP-CLI, Drush, SSH, FTP, and more.
Speed: SiteGround runs the latest software and speed performance technology on their servers: SSD drives, NGINX, HTTP2, and PHP7. Their platform is built on the highly elastic and stable Linux Containers and they have their own caching system – The SuperCacher, which speeds up website performance up to several times.
Security: They have their own backup systems and in-house server monitoring which not only detects current issues and fixes them immediately, but is also able to foresee future problems and take actions to prevent them.
Support: Their support is friendly, available 24/7 with literally no hold times, and is specially trained to answer questions that go beyond web hosting.
According to WordPress, SiteGround is one of the best and brightest WordPress hosting providers.
A2 Hosting
It doesn’t matter if you have a new site that has minimal traffic or a popular business site with tons of traffic. A2 Hosting has you covered. Their services include shared hosting, ideal for a personal website or a blog; reseller hosting for hosting your own customers; VPS hosting, if you need more power than shared hosting typically provides, plus greater isolation; or dedicated hosting (both managed and unmanaged) that is particularly suited for large businesses and ultra-busy websites.
All you need to do is determine which plan best fits your needs. Whichever one you pick, it will be A2 Optimized to a configuration that will provide you with the fastest possible page load speeds, optimal performance, rock-solid reliability (99.9% uptime commitment), and security.
A2 Hosting’s support team is always there for you 24/7 and can move your site to A2 Hosting free of charge in most instances.
WordPress VIP
WordPress VIP’s cloud hosting service is designed to meet the needs of high traffic and high-profile web publishers. Its team will work with you to prepare your site for publication. The amount of traffic your site generates. or your disk space requirements. don’t matter insofar as pricing is concerned. WordPress VIP charges a flat fee per month. WordPress VIP maintains data centers in 21 worldwide locations.
GlowHost
If your website outgrows your current shared hosting plan, your host will likely suggest that you move up a managed VPS service.
GlowHost has a better solution. Its Elastic Sites Platform is like a VPS service in many ways but without the server management headaches.
You get all the resources and reliability a VPS service typically provides. Resources like RAM, CPU and I/O are dedicated.
Pagely
Pagely’s web hosting service is exclusively designed with big brands and large WordPress sites in mind.
A premier hosting service, their pricing model offers competitive deals for the best technology and support available for mid to enterprise level accounts while smaller blogs or websites might look elsewhere.
If you experience large volumes of traffic or transactions and desire dedicated hosting from the pioneer of the Managed WordPress Hosting space, look no further than Pagely.
GoDaddy!
Last but not least, GoDaddy! Famous for their insane tv adverts, and crazy approach to hosting, they offer a lot of storage/bandwidth for very little cost.
Bluehost
Bluehost is one of the largest and most trusted web hosting services powering millions of websites.
iPage
You can create your own website and get a FREE domain name with iPage’s easy, drag-and-drop website builder tools.
Eleven2
They have brilliant customer support, their hosting plans are very cheap, and you get loads of storage space and bandwidth.
SoftLayer
SoftLayer provides many different types of hosting. All of the hostings is very reliable, and the prices are a steal too!
MediaTemple
MediaTemple provides many different hosting types for its customers. Their support is unmatchable, and all their servers are very fast!
APlus
Hosting with APlus means your website will be in a secure state of the art data center, and also 99.9% uptime is guaranteed.
JustHost
The last hosting plan you will ever need. JustHost provide their unlimited package for only £2.95 / month at the moment. What are you waiting for!
One
One.com has award-winning hosting solutions for everyone. Their prices are very very cheap, probably one of the cheapest hosts on the net.
Fast Hosts
Fast Hosts offer many different types of web hosting. Their prices are affordable by the average web designer, and their server speeds are fast.
1&1
One and One are the world’s number one web host. Their data center is amazing, and the security of the servers which your website will be on is insane!
123-Reg
123-Reg is the perfect host for web designers wanting to host a small portfolio to showcase their work. Prices start at just £1.85 / month!
UK2
UK2 offers web hosting and dedicated servers. Prices are moderately cheap, and they have great customer support by live chat, email, or phone.
WebFusion
This hosting company offers web hosting, virtual private servers, dedicated servers, and custom servers. They have full 24 hr support as well!
Useful Tips for Selecting a Web Hosting Service
- Whichever of these 5 hosting services you may choose, you’ll be getting one of the very best. You still should browse through the following helpful tips to make doubly sure you’ve made the proper choice; that of a host that will best fit your needs.
- What is the purpose of your website; what does it do; and, what are you expecting from it? Answering these questions should help you zero in on the hosting service that will provide you with the best solution.
- What do you see in the future for your website? If it’s a business or e-commerce website, and traffic and business transactions increase dramatically, you may need to scale up your hosting requirements, or even change to another hosting service. Choose the right hosting company, and any need for a change can probably be avoided.
- What are the potential host’s customer support options? If your target audience is large, and you’re experiencing heavier online sales, the faster a customer service’s response is if a problem occurs, the better.
- Gaining a general understanding of a hosting service’s offerings is seldom a problem. The question is, will the service live up to its performance and customer support claims? It’s best to check out a few reviews before signing up. Pros and cons reviews are usually preferable to testimonials, as are reviews conducted by professional software and web system reviewers.
- Never base your purchasing decision on pricing alone. The performance and service you’ll receive tend to correlate closely with the money you’ve spent.
- Reading the Terms of Service is important. It can sometimes be lengthy for legal reasons (and perhaps to discourage you from digging into the details). Pay attention to what is said about money-back guarantees, or refund policies in general.
- Check out the hosting service’s backup plan. If it isn’t clearly explained, either inquire about it or look elsewhere. You won’t encounter any problems in this area with these 5 services.
- Security breaches of one kind or another seem to be becoming commonplace. Hosting services are always subject to attempted hacking, but those listed here will do an excellent job of protecting your website, and your customer data and transactional information.
Summing Up
Hopefully, you are by now in an excellent position to make a well-informed decision in selecting a hosting solution that will fit your needs to a T. The 5 hosting services discussed here are top of the line, but we always suggest checking out a few reviews before selecting any web product or service.
Thanks for sharing.
I think it will be good if you have a good hosting to your website.
Thanks for sharing ..
One.com have a good 24h Chat-Support.
And HP Backing Them.
Where’s rackspace in that list?
I would have to second the recommendation for BlueHost or their sister company HostMonster. I have all my customers on them and have only had 2 downtime issues in 3 years.
agree with @Adrien_Eden. Sorry, I don’t know what the mediatemple obsession is… I hosted with them on various sites for about two years and their downtime was constant, their PHP sessions were unreliable, and whenever I would call support they would just say they couldn’t replicate the issue. Meanwhile, clients would be freakin. Have been on Bluehost for a number of years now and have only had downtime issues twice. Meanwhile they come with a lot of great stuff installed (ffmpeg) and their support really is top-notch. Dreamhost is pretty darn good too, though a bit more laissez-faire. This is inspiring me to write my own post on the subject.
Bluehost is the best by far.
I was surprised I didn’t see Dreamhost up there also. I’m currently hosting all of my sites on Dreamhost and I think they’re great! Really easy system to use, very nice features and their customer service is phenominal. Have never had to wait more than a day for any trouble tickets.
I recommend you check out KnownHost too. Their service is incredible. Very helpful and quick to respond. (I also couldn’t find a sing bad word about them on the net before signing up.)
really nice list. and I recommending yrhost.com
using it from 2006. excellent customer care via ticketing feature. and flexible billing, (once my cc was expired, I explained them, they wait for 1 week for my payment, )
but speed is bit slow because of my video streaming.
and any list for cheap & reliable reseller host?
thanks
Aneslin’s last blog post..SEO Sitemaps Give Websites a Boost
I thought about putting dreamhost on the list, but i wasnt too sure. Is it a good host? I have heard some bad things about them.
Yeh they look really good. Maybe will be on the next list heh?
Thanks for the mention, Andy, always appreciated!
By the way, send a ticket on over to Billing, noticed you were on an older server and if you’d prefer to get on a new class of servers with LiteSpeed we’d be happy to move you over.
Would like to throw a recommendation out (can a host do that?!) for Slicehost and Linode.
Also nice to see SoftLayer in there, they’re the best data center out there!
Hey Kyle,
Sorry to say this, but i left last year and setup a gs with MediaTemple. I really did enjoy my 2 years of hosting with crucial, and I still recommend you to people.
You have a really good service. Keep up the great work 🙂
I am Hostgator client since 2002 and I never had problems with them.They offers excellent services.They are always stand by for your questions or problems.Any time, any day. I don’t change them for any cheaper hosting.Another think, they don’t make automatically debit in your check account.You receive an invoice and choose your payment method.
I recommend!
Dungol
I would also like to add SurpassHosting.com in this list cause it’s one of the best as well. Prices are low but the packages and support is awesome. They are going to answer your ticket in a matter of minutes plus they have a live chat now.
My site was running slow once and they switched it to a new server with no problems plus they had a backup of my site when I lost it once 🙂
I have just looked at SurpassHosting.com and their site look good. Was thinking about hosting with them but I am having trouble finding a good review for them. Lots of people complaining about the deciding to charge the a lot more then expected. Well the search for a good hosting service ‘continues’
Dag nabbit good stuff you whiperpsnappres!
Yeh, im with MediaTemple for my private projects, and they are really really good.
Just thought that I would say that I have read some relay bad reviews from Eleven2 so I would say do not join them, I’m not.
But think of the ratio of bad reviews compared to satisfied customers / good reviews?
Not everyone gets along with hosting companies.
Just got here from you tweet about this, I did host with Eleven2 and they are very good! Thanks again.
I am thinking about starting with eleven2.com, their site look amazing (a bit Media Templeish once you get past the home page) Also the plans are very clearly labeled… They look like they will do a good job. Thanks for this list it has ready helped me a lot.
Yeh, eleven2 have an awesome deal on at the moment! 🙂
We are honored to be a part of this list. Please let us know if we can provide any resources for your subscribers.
awesome, think i might have to check them out actually, especially Pixel Internet, my website is like a big gallery so that will be very handy =]
Personally, after hosting with crucial for 18 months, i prefer M6.net. Although, on face value Crucial appear to be very good, READ THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS! I got caught out and it cost me one year’s hosting with them and another year with M6.
Both hosts had their advantages and disadvantages, but in my opinon, in terms of Value for Money – its M6.net all the way :).
Josh