How to Choose the Best WordPress Hosting in 2022
When you plan on starting a new WordPress site of any kind, choosing the best WordPress hosting service is an essential task if you want to get the best out of your new project.
When you start searching for the best hosting for WordPress on the market, you may be overwhelmed by the wide variety of options and plans offered.
There are many different WordPress hosting services that you can subscribe to, including shared, free, dedicated, VPS, or managed hosting.
We have selected the best WordPress hosting providers on the market and thoroughly reviewed and compared all their essential features, pros, cons, and how the best hosting providers and plans for WordPress compare to one another.
Our guide for the best WordPress hosts for 2022 aims to help you find the best WordPress hosting type and service for your needs.
What are the WordPress Hosting Requirements?
Since WordPress has a light script and is supported by most web hosting companies, all the best WordPress hosting services need to be able to provide is a MySQL v.5.6 or greater, or MariaDB v.10.1 or greater, as well as SSL (HTTPS) support, and PHP v.7 or greater.
Thankfully, the best WordPress host providers offer specialized WordPress hosting plans and usually offer one-click installation of WordPress.
Things to Consider when Choosing a WordPress Hosting Provider
When selecting the best hosting with WordPress support, some of the main features to look for are reliability, security, speed, and reliable customer service. Most importantly, you will need to choose a service that can fulfill the requirements and needs for the specific site you will be building and running.
Evaluating Your WordPress Hosting Needs
There are different kinds of hosting services for WordPress on the market, including free, dedicated, shared, VPS, and managed WordPress hosting.
Here are the main features of each of these best hostings for WordPress.
Free WordPress Hosting
Yes, there are some free WordPress and web hosting services on the market, but keep in mind that “free” usually comes with a catch.
In some cases, free hosting is offered to users who already pay for a hosting service and want to share some server space to cover some of the hosting fees.
You can expect to have ads, text links, or banners on your free site, which are used for generating revenue for the hosting provider.
Apart from the ads on your website, another feature to be wary of when picking a free hosting service is that it is not as reliable as the other WordPress hosting service provided, and you don’t have any guarantees for the uptime or the continuation of the hosting.
Overall, using free hosting for a serious business or other site is not recommended.
Shared WordPress Hosting
Shared WordPress hosting is the most popular hosting service suitable for newbies.
You will be sharing a server along with other users and websites, which means that you will be paying lower hosting fees than relying on a dedicated server.
Keep in mind that although most shared hosting providers promise unlimited storage, bandwidth and traffic, if your site or online store starts generating too much traffic or growing rapidly, you will most likely be prompted to subscribe for a more expensive hosting plan.
Still, using shared hosting is an excellent option for beginner bloggers, new small stores, and other new websites.
WordPress VPS Hosting
VPS stands for Virtual Private Server and is also known as a virtual machine. With this type of hosting, a single physical server is partitioned into many virtual servers.
Although this sounds similar to shared hosting, VPS hosting actually offers more features, including the support of different software, privacy, and more.
VPS is one of the preferred hosting options by intermediate bloggers, website owners, and developers.
It does require some technical skills, so if you are not tech-savvy, make sure that you opt for a managed VPS web hosting service, where everything technical will be taken care of.
Overall, the VPS WordPress hosting is suitable for medium-sized businesses, intermediate designers, and for blogs with higher traffic.
WordPress Dedicated Server Hosting
As its name suggests, a dedicated server will be committed to your needs only. With dedicated server hosting, you will have access to all of the server’s resources and complete control over the hardware, software, and operating system you want to use.
Choosing a dedicated server hosting service is essential once your online store or other site starts growing and getting increased traffic.
Once again, if you are not too technically apt or don’t want to deal with the server’s maintenance, it is recommended that you opt for a managed dedicated server hosting service or plan.
So, dedicated server WordPress hosting is the best choice for high-traffic sites, stores, and blogs.
Managed WordPress Hosting
Most of the best hosting companies worldwide offer managed WordPress hosting as part of their services.
These plans include support of one or more WordPress websites and offer maintenance, including upgrades, security, and backups for your site and data.
Usually, the hosting companies offering managed WordPress hosting have dedicated staff consisting of WordPress experts who can help you with your hosting and any technical problems you may face.
This type of WordPress hosting is usually costlier than others, so it is a reasonable choice for businesses, bloggers, or individuals who can afford to pay for the managed WordPress hosting service.
Best WordPress Web Hosting Providers
SiteGround
SiteGround is another one of the officially recommended hosting providers by WordPress. It is also among the leading hosting companies in the world.
SiteGround offers a wide array of hosting services and plans, including ones designed specifically for WordPress.
You can find affordable WordPress hosting plans and WooCommerce WordPress hosting plans with many useful features and tools that will help you build and grow a successful online store and sell any product type.
SiteGround has hosting centers on most continents and offers one of the most reliable 24/7 customer support services in the industry.
Bluehost
Bluehost has been on the market since the mid-1990s and is among the leading hosting companies in the world.
The hosting company is one of the three officially recommended WordPress hosting services by WordPress.
The company has a variety of WordPress-specific hosting options and plans, including Shared WordPress hosting plans, Managed WordPress, and ecommerce (WooCommerce) hosting.
HostGator
HostGator is a hosting company that is currently hosting more than 2 million websites and offers everything you will need to run a WordPress site of any type and size.
The hosting company offers reasonably priced Managed WordPress hosting plans, which come with a guarantee for 99.9% uptime, free domain, installed WordPress, SSL, 24/7 customer support, and a 45-day money-back guarantee.
DreamHost
DreamHost is another top-rated hosting company that has been providing hosting services for nearly a decade. Along with Bluehost and SiteGround, it is the third officially recommended hosting service by WordPress.
You can find a wide variety of WordPress hosting services and plans offered by DreamHost, including WordPress Basic, DreamPress Managed WordPress hosting, and VPS web hosting for WordPress.
GreenGeeks
GreenGeeks is an eco-friendly hosting company that currently hosts more than 500,000 websites, has 5 data centers, and offers a variety of WordPress hosting plans.
You can choose among the affordable WordPress hosting plans and the WordPress WooCommerce hosting plans for ecommerce.
It is the company to opt for if you want excellent hosting services with a minimal negative impact on the environment.
Best WordPress Hosting Comparison (2022)
Now that you know which the top-recommended best WordPress hosting services and companies for 2022 are, you may be facing a dilemma about which one is the best for your specific needs.
It is vital for the success of your website to pick the most suitable WordPress hosting service.
This is why we offer additional guides and detailed overviews of all the WordPress hosting providers on our list.
WordPress Hosting Quiz
Since it may be overwhelming to pick among all of the excellent options for WordPress hosting, you may want to try out the WordPress hosting quiz, which will offer you the top-recommended WordPress hosting service and plan for your site project. You can send us a message with your requirements, and we will do our best to guide you to the best choice for your budget, website, and skill level.
Detailed WordPress Hosting Performance Comparison
Our review of the best WordPress hosting provider companies and services is based on in-depth testing and our years of experience.
We tested a sample WordPress website on the best WordPress hosting companies and measured their overall performance. We used reputable speed tests for the load time, traffic peak tests, and response time tests to find the best hosting services for your WordPress site.
Here is the overview of all of our top picks for the best WordPress web hosting companies and their services.
SiteGround WordPress Hosting
Related: Detailed SiteGround Review 2023 – When (& When not) To Use It
SiteGround is another one of the three officially recommended hosting companies by WordPress.
The Bulgarian-based company is also one of the most reputable and popular hosting companies globally.
The result of the independent speed tests shows that the site has a load time faster than 95% of all other tested sites, which is a fantastic result.
The traffic peak impact test resulted in a stable performance of the SiteGround hosting server.
And the tests for the response time from different parts of the world showed that the SiteGround hosting services were equally reliable and fast no matter which location we picked.
Of course, to improve the services’ speeds and reliability, you can ask SiteGround to move your hosting to a server located in a country as near to you as possible.
The company offers reasonably priced WordPress hosting plans and WooCommerce hosting plans suitable for almost any need and site type and size.
Pros:
- Officially recommended by WordPress org
- Nearly 100% uptime
- Above-average speeds
- Servers in America, Europe, Asia, and Australia
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Free SSL, CDN, and email
- Free WordPress installation, free site migration, and software updates
- Daily backup
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Cons:
- Not the most inexpensive of all WordPress hosting plans
- There are limits on the storage space
You can check out the WordPress hosting plans offered by SiteGround here.
Bluehost WordPress Hosting
Related: Bluehost Review: In-Depth Look & Speed Test (2022)
Bluehost is one of the hosting companies officially recommended by WordPress and is among the world’s largest hosting enterprises.
All of the WordPress hosting plans come with pre-installed WordPress. You can choose among the shared web hosting plans and the Managed WordPress hosting or WooCommerce ecommerce hosting plans offered by Bluehost.
The tests we performed on Bluehost show that the WordPress site had a load time faster than 85% of the other tested sites.
The Bluehost WordPress server provided reliable stability during the traffic load impact test as well.
As for the response time from different locations, Bluehost once again delighted us with exceptional results of a fraction of a second for the US site and under a second from other locations on all different continents.
The shared WordPress hosting plans start from $2.65 per month and are up to $4.95 per month when signing up for 3 years.
The managed WordPress hosting plans start from $9.95 per month and reach up to $39.95 per month for a 3-year period.
The ecommerce WooCommerce WordPress hosting plans cost $9.95 for the Standard plan and $24.95 per month for the Premium plan when paid for a 36-month term.
Pros:
- One of the 3 hosting services endorsed and officially recommended by WordPress.org
- Inexpensive starter fees
- One of the most reliable uptimes
- Generous storage is offered with all shared web hosting plans
- Unlimited bandwidth
Cons:
- The Basic shared hosting plan offers limited backup options
- You will need to upgrade to a more expensive plan to unlock most features
You can pick the best Bluehost WordPress hosting plan here.
HostGator WordPress Hosting
HostGator is currently hosting more than 2 million domains and is among the world’s top best WordPress web hosting companies.
The hosting provider offers specialized WordPress hosting plans among all other various hosting services.
Our speed tests showed that the website hosted on a HostGator server had a faster load than 94% of all tested sites.
The hosting service performed very well during a load impact test on our test site and showed no slow down when the traffic rose to 80 users and different connections. After that, it showed a slight slowing down until the traffic reached a peak of 100 simultaneous connections. This is a very good result given that we tested the shared web hosting services offered by HostGator.
For better results and for websites with larger traffic, it is recommended to move to a VPS, dedicated or managed WordPress hosting service or plan.
As for the response time from different geographical locations, the server response time remained well under 1 second from any of the locations on different continents tested.
The company offers three WordPress hosting plans, starting from $5.95 per month and reaching up to $9.95 per month. All include a free domain and a free SSL certificate, 1 to 3GB of backups, and pre-installed WordPress.
This hosting service is an excellent option for businesses and websites which are growing, as it offers scalable hosting plans.
Pros:
- Very affordable starter plans and prices
- Flexible hosting plan terms from 1 up to 36 months
- Unmetered bandwidth
- 99.9% uptime guaranteed
- Free domain and email
- 24/7 customer support via live chat, phone, and Twitter
- Industry-leading 45-day money-back guarantee
Cons:
- The WordPress hosting plans have limitations for visits per month
- The renewal prices and fees grow considerably
You can try out the WordPress hosting services offered by HostGator risk-free for 45 days here.
DreamHost WordPress Hosting
Related: A Comprehensive DreamHost Web Hosting Review 2022
DreamHost is the third of our top choices for WordPress hosting, which is officially recommended by WordPress.org.
Our speed tests showed that DreamHost WordPress hosting site loaded faster than 93% of all sites tested. The traffic load impact test results impressed us, as the server speed remained stable even with 100 multiple connection requests sent simultaneously.
The server response test from different locations worldwide also showed a quick response time of our test site from the US and slightly slower loading times from countries on other continents. Still, the loading times remained much lower than 1 second from all geographical locations tested.
We conclude that the DreamHost WordPress hosting services are suitable for all types of websites, especially for businesses and users who want the highest levels of privacy of their domains, as privacy protection is included in all plans.
DreamHost offers a WordPress basic plan for $2.59 per month, a Managed DreamPress plan for $16.95 per month, and a VPS for WordPress starting from $27.50 per month – all of the prices are for users who sign up for a 3-year plan.
Pros:
- Endorsed by WordPress.org
- It has one of the least expensive WordPress hosting plans, including shared, managed, and VPS hosting
- There are no upsells pitched
- Privacy protection included in the price
- Generous disk space storage and unlimited bandwidth
- One-click WordPress installer, a website builder, and auto-updates
- Automated backups
- 100% uptime
- Free SSL, domain, and email
- 24/7 reliable customer support team
- 97-day money-back guarantee
Cons:
- You will need to pay extra for email accounts for the Starter plan
You can test the hosting services provided by DreamHost here for 97 days risk-free.
GreenGeeks WordPress Hosting
Related: GreenGeeks Review – 2023
GreenGeeks has been growing in popularity in the latest years as a hosting provider that offers reliable and high-speed services, all based on an environmentally friendly hosting platform.
The company offers affordable WordPress hosting plans for all needs, including unlimited disk space, bandwidth, SSL certificate, and a free domain name for a year. Users will also get unlimited email accounts, free CDN, nightly backups, and easy WordPress installation.
Our speed tests showed that the GreenGeeks hosted website loaded faster than 94% of all tested sites and that the speed and loading performance remained persistent for connections from all around the world. This is understandable, given that the company has five data centers worldwide.
The traffic load impact test showed that the server remained stable and performed consistently even when 100 unique connection requests were sent at once.
Overall, GreenGeeks is a WordPress hosting service that is a great solution for people and businesses who want to have access to the reliable and timely help and support and be presented with all the features they need to start and run a site without additional fees.
Plus, GreenGeeks offers a 300% Green Energy Match for each plan, so it is the best hosting solution for environmentally conscious users and companies.
Pros:
- Blazing fast speeds
- 100% customer satisfaction, according to the website
- Responsive 24/7 support – one of the best in the industry
- 99% uptime
- Free backups every night
- Free CDN, SSL
- No upsells
- Free site migration
- The company is green energy-friendly and a recognized Green Power Partner with the US Environmental Protection Agency
Cons:
- The prices for renewing a plan are higher than the starter fees
You can check out the GreenGeeks WordPress plans here.
Best WordPress Hosting (Quick Recap)
As a quick recap, here is a side-to-side comparison of all the major features for our top best choices for WordPress hosting providers for 2022.
Initial costs start at:
- Bluehost – $2.65 per month for 3-year contracts
- SiteGround – $6.99 per month
- HostGator – $5.95 per month
- DreamHost – $2.59 for a 3-year plan
- GreenGeeks – $2.49 per month
Free domain name included:
- Bluehost – yes
- SiteGround – yes
- HostGator – yes
- DreamHost – yes
- GreenGeeks – yes
Free SSL included:
- Bluehost – yes
- SiteGround – yes
- HostGator – yes
- DreamHost – yes
- GreenGeeks – yes
1-Click WordPress install:
- Bluehost – yes
- SiteGround – yes
- HostGator – yes
- DreamHost – yes
- GreenGeeks – yes
Choose the Best WordPress Hosting (Infographic)
You can refer to this useful Infographic when you are choosing the most suitable web hosting platforms for your needs.
It is easy to follow and will help you understand the similarities, differences, pros, and cons of each type of WordPress hosting offered.
It also provides a useful visual guide to the essential features to look for when picking the top-rated WordPress web host service.
infographic
Source: WPBeginner WordPress Hosting Guide
WordPress Hosting FAQs
Here are some of the most common FAQs from users about the WordPress org hosting companies, the WordPress plans, and more.
Q: Is WordPress hosting necessary for starting a new website?
A: Yes, you will need web hosting for any type of WordPress site because it is where the files and your data are all stored. So, if you want your site to be up and running, you will need to set it up on a reliable hosting server.
Q: Can I find a free WordPress hosting provider or service?
A: Yes, you can opt for a free web hosting provider, but keep in mind that there is almost always a catch when you use a free hosting service. In some cases, you may have ads and banners displayed on your site. In other cases, your site features may be limited unless you upgrade to a paid plan.
Plus, with a free service, you don’t have a guarantee that your site will be up and running for as long as you want it to. In some cases, some free web hosts may even add malware links to your free site.
So, using free hosting is not recommended for anyone looking to build and run a serious and successful personal or business site.
Q: How much does building a WordPress site cost?
A: How much a WordPress website costs depend on the site and on your needs. You can build your WordPress yourself for almost free, but the price for web developers and additional services can rise to 5-6 digit numbers and more too.
Q: Do I need to use a domain name and a hosting service on the same server and by the same provider?
A: No, you can purchase a domain name from wherever you want, but if you don’t have a domain name, you can use the one provided for free by most web hosts, and when the time comes to upgrade to buy a custom domain from them.
Q: Are these WordPress hosting companies suitable for building and running an online store?
A: Yes, they can be used for building and running an ecommerce store. The majority of our top picks from the list of the top WordPress web host providers offer SSL security certificates. Most of them have plans that are specifically designed for ecommerce websites, namely for using the most popular WordPress ecommerce plugin WooCommerce.
Q: How can I secure my hosting account for my website?
A: It is recommended that you use a strong password for your WordPress hosting account and avoid signing in via a public network without a VPN. There are also other steps for ensuring that your WordPress site and hosting account remain safe at all times. Some of them include changing the default admin username, limiting the login attempts, installing a backup plugin or solution, using a web application firewall, disabling file editing or PHP file running, and more.
Q: How do I install WordPress to my WordPress hosting account?
A: Thankfully, all of our top picks for the leading web hosting services offer either pre-installed WordPress or 1-click WordPress installation to its users.
Most web hosts also offer easy installation of some of the essential plugins and automatic upgrades of WordPress and the plugins.
Q: What is cPanel, and do I need it for my WordPress hosting?
A: cPanel is a commonly used control panel for WordPress, which allows a user to edit and manage the websites, email accounts, and more. While it is not mandatory, cPanel is definitely easier to use than some other control panels.
Q: How much traffic can a WordPress hosting handle?
A: The answer to this question depends on the WordPress hosting provider and plan you choose. Some plans offer unlimited bandwidth and can handle up to 2,000 visitors per day. Others have limits per day or month.
So, make sure you check out the WordPress hosting plans you are interested in beforehand, especially if you will be running a high-traffic blog, online store, or another website.
Usually, shared hosting is limited to certain numbers of visitors per month, so once you reach that sort of traffic, you may be prompted to opt for a VPS, dedicated, or managed WordPress hosting plan instead.
Can I switch from one hosting provider to another?
Yes, there are no problems with choosing another WordPress hosting company or service at any point in time. Most hosting companies offer free and easy migration of websites from one hosting server to another, which should make life simpler for you when you decide to move your site to another hosting environment or company.
Q: Should I care about where my hosting server is located?
A: in many cases, reputable WordPress hosting companies will provide you with an opportunity to choose a specific data center. The closer your data is located – the faster and more reliable your website will be, so make sure you pick the data center, which is the closest to you or your target audience.
Q: Which is better – paying month to month or committing to a long-term hosting plan?
A: Most of the leading hosting companies and all of those we have picked for you offer quite attractive discounts for signing up for longer-term plans of 1, 2, or 3 years.
Plus, they almost all offer free trials or money-back guarantees, so even if you commit to a longer-term plan, you will still have the time to test the hosting services and decide whether you want to keep using it or ask for a refund.
Q: Do I need to add add-ons to my WordPress hosting plan?
A: Since hosting is a business, it comes as no surprise that many hosting companies will try to sell you more and upsell you to buy additional add-ons and features to your monthly subscription.
Make sure that you carefully check what is included in your hosting plan and what is added or checked when you are ordering or paying for the hosting plan.
This will help prevent you from spending more than you have intended for something you don’t necessarily need.
If, later on, you decide to add a specific extra to your plan, you can do so easily at any time.
Q: Will I receive a professionally branded email from the hosting company?
A: Most hosting companies include at least one free business email address, but it is more reliable to set up a business email address via Google Apps.
Q: Will the hosting company back up my data for me?
A: Yes, our top picks for the best be hosting companies for WordPress include daily backups of your website with their WordPress hosting plans. Still, for peace of mind, you can also install a backup plugin to perform your own backups as well.
Q: Are there alternatives to the best hosting companies from your list?
A: There are hundreds of different hosting companies that offer WordPress hosting. Some of the other WordPress hosting companies worth checking out include GoDaddy, Site5, WP Engine, JustHost, LiquidWeb, Pantheon, A2 Hosting, NameCheap,
Our research and tests show that the companies we have picked as the top best WordPress hosting services offer the best value for money.
Q: Which are the best WordPress hosting companies in your opinion?
Our top picks include:
- Bluehost – the best overall hosting provider for WordPress
- SiteGround – the best premium WordPress hosting customer support
- HostGator – the best WordPress hosting provider for smaller businesses
Hopefully, we have helped you choose the best host for WordPress for your needs and your budget.
We would love to hear your thoughts and wish you good luck with finding the best hosting plan and provider for your WordPress website.
Feel free to share your experience and opinions on these or other WordPress hosting services.
