WordPress hosting can help you get your site up and running in no time.
If CNET has inspired you to start writing reviews of your own, then there’s only one content management system you need: WordPress. It’s one of the most popular CMS options out there, with around 40% of all websites using it, according to Web Tribunal. Not only that but more than 600 sites are created every day with WordPress. That’s around 10 times more than Shopify and Squarespace’s 60 to 80 a day. Yes, if you need a website, then WordPress is the way to go.
Choosing a WordPress hosting service can be challenging. A huge number of WordPress hosting options offer great customer service and a lot of good features at a reasonable price. We examined the data for 22 services to help make the choice easier for you.
While we didn’t test these services, we did read through each service’s offerings and ranked them according to essential features. Here’s what we looked for to determine the best WordPress hosting service. You can also check out CNET’s best web hosting services and things to know about web hosting for more information on some of these features.
Tiered hosting plans: Tiered plans give you the option to scale your WordPress site up as it grows.
Security features: Services need to include some basic security features such as SSL certificates, DDoS protections and backups to protect your and your visitor’s data. The best web hosts do this at no extra charge.
Uptime of 99.9% or higher: An uptime of 99.9% or higher ensures your site won’t go down for more than 20 minutes a month, so you keep losses of readers and sales to a minimum.
Customer support: All services offer some kind of customer support. Some say they offer customer service 24/7, but they mean you can email them any time. That’s a good start, but if you have an issue that needs immediate attention live chat support is better, and phone support is best.
The best WordPress hosting services meet all four of those criteria. If a service falls short on one or more of those measures, you’ll find it in our list of other WordPress hosting services to consider or our list of additional WordPress hosts.
Three of the WordPress hosts on this list are recommended by WordPress: Bluehost, Dreamhostand Siteground. Bluehost and Dreamhost are not among our best WordPress services. Bluehost doesn’t have an uptime guarantee, and Dreamhost lacks phone support and offers customer support by chat only within limited daily time frames.
Note: Pricing for hosting services is hard to follow. Services usually list introductory rates that require contracts of one or more years. Once those contracts are up, the prices jump considerably, meaning the long-term cost is quite different than it seems at first glance. This is why it’s important to check the renewal price because most services auto-renew contracts annually to ensure sites stay up at all times. Actual month-to-month plans are available in some cases, but they usually bill at the regular rate without an introductory discount.
Best WordPress hosting services
- WordPress automatic updates available
- Free business email accounts included
Cons:
- Value of “deals” doesn’t hold up for long-term use
Tiered hosting plans
SiteGround offers three WordPress hosting options: StartUp, GrowBig and GoGeek. Each offers unmetered traffic, but as you move from StartUp to GrowBig and finally to GoGeek, you get additional perks like on-demand backups and more server resources.
Security features
Each SiteGround WordPress plan includes security features like SSL certificates, daily backups and a custom web application firewall.
Uptime
SiteGround offers a 99.99% uptime, which is higher than the industry standard of 99.9%. Customers should expect less than an hour of downtime per year, compared to nine hours for companies that only offer 99.9% uptime.
Customer support
Customer support is available 24/7 by phone, chat or ticket submission. SiteGround also offers tutorials to help you if you want to figure out any issues on your own.
Other information
Each WordPress plan also comes with automatic WordPress installation and free site migration when you purchase a plan. Each plan also includes automatic updates, so you can customize an update schedule once a new plugin or version is available. Siteground also has a 100% renewable energy match so the service gives back as much energy as its data centers use.
On the downside, Siteground’s language around its ‘Best Deal’ is a bit misleading. Siteground says its 12-month plan is the best deal, but the price renews at the regular rate of $15 a month after the first year, which is more than three times the introductory price. The service’s 36-month plan looks to be more pricey, but this plan is actually the best deal if you plan on hosting a site with SiteGrounds for three years, coming in at almost $30 less than the ‘best deal’ for that same amount of time. Domain registration is also not included, so when you check out, that is automatically added for a one-time additional $18.
Prices start at $3 a month.
Domain registration with SiteGround isn’t included with hosting and is a one-time additional $18.
- Shared, VPS and dedicated WordPress hosting available
- Automated social media posting included
Cons:
- Add-ons automatically added at checkout
Tiered hosting plans
InMotion Hosting offers four tiered standard WordPress plans called WP Core, WP Launch, WP Power and WP Pro. The WP Core plan comes with limited resources, like two websites, 100 GB of storage and 10 business email addresses, but all other plans remove limits on websites, data storage and email accounts.
Security features
All plans include an SSL certificate, web application firewalls and hack and malware protection.
Uptime
InMotion Hosting offers 99.99% uptime, placing InMotion Hosting above the standard in terms of uptime.
Customer support
InMotion hosting customers can reach customer support 24/7 by phone, chat, email or ticket submission. The InMotion Hosting support center also offers video tutorials for more detailed assistance.
Other information
InMotion Hosting offers shared, VPS and dedicated WordPress hosting, which is more than many other WordPress hosting services. Each of these plans is also tiered, allowing you to fine-tune your subscription. VPS WordPress hosting has four different tiered options, and dedicated WordPress hosting has five tiered options plus a “build your own plan” option. These additional tiers give you more plan options than other services.
If you choose a WordPress hosting plan with InMotion Hosting, make sure you double-check your cart before checking out. When I went to my cart, my bill was $54 higher because of automatic add-ons. You can remove these options.
Prices start at $3 a month.
These automatic add-ons can be removed from your InMotion Hosting bill if you don’t want them.
- Lowest entry price
- WordPress Pro offered
Cons:
- Plan prices increase over time, sometimes by huge margins
- WordPress needs to be installed after purchase
Tiered hosting options
IONOS offers three different tiered, standard WordPress plans: Essential, Business and Unlimited. The Essential and Business plans offer limited data, while the Unlimited plan offers unlimited data and more resources.
Security features
IONOS plans include some of the best security features. All plans include SSL certificates, malware scans and DDoS protections. Some security features included with some plans also help repair damage malware might cause on your website. Each plan includes backups at least once every 24 hours, and each backup is held for 20 days. A full set of a customer’s data is also stored in two separate data centers as a security measure. This ensures customers always have access to their data, even if a data center is down from a cyberattack.
Uptime
IONOS has a 99.99% uptime guarantee, which is a higher guarantee than most other WordPress web hosting services. Battery-operated power supplies and backup generators help maintain power to IONOS data centers so your site and services stay online even if its data center loses power.
Customer support
IONOS customers have some unique customer support options. Customer support is available 24/7 by phone or chat. IONOS also has a directory that provides customer support numbers in 14 different countries. Plans also include a personal consultant who will be your main point of contact if you need help with your site.
Other features
IONOS also offers WordPress Pro, which is its version of dedicated WordPress hosting. It comes with features to handle larger operations and projects. For example, the staging tool lets you preview changes to your site before they are implemented.
IONOS’ entry price is also the lowest of any other hosting service.
Though the entry price is the lowest, that price increases upon renewal by over 1,000%, which is the highest renewal rate of plans on this list. The renewal rate is $8 a month, which is lower than some introductory rates for other services, but the price can still be jarring if you renew with IONOS after your initial contract. You also have to install WordPress on your own after you’ve purchased the plan, but IONOS has an installation guide.
Prices start at $0.50 a month.
While this plan is $0.50 a month for a year, it renews at $8 a month.
- SEO tools included
- Free site migration
Cons:
- Relatively expensive entry price
Tiered hosting options
A2 Hosting offers four tiered WordPress hosting plans called Run, Jump, Fly and Sell. Run and Jump plans limit data storage and the number of websites you can host while Fly and Sell offer unlimited data storage and an unlimited number of websites. If you’re trying to start an online shop, Sell comes with e-commerce tools preinstalled.
Security features
Each plan comes with security features like an SSL certificate, dual firewalls, virus scanner and brute force defense. Each of the four plans comes with an Immunify360 security suite, which regularly costs $12 a month, and the Patchman enhanced security tool, which regularly costs about $25 a month. Fly and Sell plans also include automated daily malware scans.
Uptime
A2 Hosting has a 99.9% uptime commitment. An uptime of 99.9% means your site shouldn’t be down for more than nine hours a year, which is the industry standard.
Customer support
A2 Hosting customers can reach customer support 24/7 by phone, chat or email. A2 Hosting has a large database called Knowledge Base filled with information to help you develop and grow your site if you want to troubleshoot on your own.
Other information
A2 Hosting also offers free site migration, which usually costs $300 to $400. When you go to check out, there are also no add-ons automatically tacked onto your bill. There are add-ons if you’re interested, but they don’t feel forced on you. A2 Hosting has also been carbon-neutral since 2007.
The biggest downside? A2 Hosting’s entry price is relatively high compared to other WordPress hosting services — higher than the renewal price of some other services.
Prices start at $12 a month.
- One-click WordPress installation
- Automated backups from CodeGuard and SiteLock Essential included
Cons:
- Renewal prices not listed
Tiered hosting options
HostGator offers three tiered WordPress hosting plans: Starter Plan, Standard Plan and Business Plan. The main difference between each plan is the number of websites you can run, how many visitors your site can accommodate per month and how many sites can be migrated to HostGator for free. None of these options are unlimited or unmetered like other WordPress hosting services.
Security features
HostGator plans include SSL certificates and DDoS protections. WordPress plans also come with automated backups from CodeGuard and security features from SiteLock Essential. Combined, these would cost at least $120 per year, but they are included at no additional cost. HostGator writes that anyone with “critical business information or important data are STRONGLY encouraged to seek a third-party backup service…” (emphasis theirs). Maybe this is just HostGator covering its legal bases, but it doesn’t feel like a vote of confidence for HostGator’s existing backup system.
Uptime
HostGator has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This means your site shouldn’t be down for more than nine hours a year, which is the industry standard.
Customer support
Customers can reach HostGator customer support representatives by chat, email or phone 24/7. Users can also access a database full of video tutorials, articles and guides. Not all services offer video tutorials, which could help solve an issue when it feels like talking to customer support over the phone or online isn’t helping. HostGator support is also active on Twitter.
Other information
HostGator also has a one-click WordPress installation process, and HostGator offers a video tutorial in case you want additional help.
Like other services, each tiered plan offers an introductory price, and the cost rises when the plan renews. While other services list the renewal price near the introductory price, HostGator doesn’t. You can only see the renewal price when you go to check out, so I pulled those rates and listed them here.
- Starter Plan: $15 a month
- Standard Plan: $28 a month
- Business Plan: $60 a month
Plans start at $6 a month.
- WordPress training sessions included
- Managed WordPress plans also available
Cons:
- Some automated features only available with more expensive plans
- Some additional items automatically added at checkout
Tiered hosting options
HostPapa offers three tiered standard WordPress hosting plans called WP Starter, WP Business and WP Business Pro. The WP Starter plan limits some features like data storage, the number of websites you can host and the number of business email accounts supported. The other plans don’t limit these resources. The WP Business Pro plan also includes Jetpack Premium; a WordPress plugin that offers additional security and e-commerce features, which usually costs $100 annually.
Security features
Each plan includes security features like an SSL certificate, brute force attack protection and business email virus scans. Some security features, like spam and malware scans, are included in the most expensive plans.
Uptime
HostPapa has a 99.9% uptime guarantee. This is the industry standard and means you should expect your site to be down for no more than nine hours a year.
Customer support
HostPapa customers get 24/7 customer support via phone, chat and email. You also have access to a knowledge base filled with articles and tutorials to help maintain your site. HostPapa also offers 30-minute WordPress training sessions by video chat so you can get one-on-one help if you’re a WordPress beginner or expert.
Other information
HostPapa also offers managed WordPress plans, but these plans are more expensive than the standard WordPress plans offered by HostPapa, which are unmanaged. HostPapa is also a carbon-neutral hosting service.
Like other services, you should double-check your order before you check out. Some additional items, like automated backups and more security features, are automatically added to your cart and will cost you about $40 extra.
Prices start at $3 a month.
Upon checkout, HostPapa automatically adds additional features to your bill at an extra charge.
- WordPress preinstalled
- No large price jump upon renewal
Cons:
- Shared hosting plans are cheaper, offer similar features
Tiered hosting options
GoDaddy Web Hosting offers four tiered WordPress hosting plans: Basic, Deluxe, Ultimate and Ecommerce. Basic and Deluxe plans have data limits in place of 30 and 75GB, respectively. Basic and Deluxe plans also accommodate 25K and 100K site visitors a month, respectively. Ultimate and Ecommerce plans offer unlimited data and site visitors. The Ecommerce plan also helps get your online store up and running fast.
Security features
Each plan includes an SSL certificate, automatic daily malware scans and daily backups. Deluxe, Ultimate and Ecommerce plans also include secure file transfer protocol access.
Uptime
GoDaddy has an industry-standard 99.9% uptime guarantee. This means you should expect your site to be down for about nine hours a year.
Customer support
GoDaddy customers have 24/7 phone and chat customer support, plus a help center full of guides and videos.
Other information
WordPress is preinstalled with each hosting plan. Unlike other services, when plans renew there isn’t a drastic increase in price. Some plans only increase by one dollar.
What’s confusing about GoDaddy is it offers shared hosting plans that have similar features to its WordPress plans. The introductory and renewal rates are less than the WordPress plans, and the shared hosting plans come with a one-click WordPress installation tool, too. With that in mind, why not go with a shared hosting plan and save yourself some money?
Prices start at $11 a month.
- Staging tools available to let you test out site changes
- Seven tiered plans
Cons:
- Pricing more confusing than other services
Tiered hosting options
Nexcess offers seven tiered WordPress hosting plans called Spark, Maker, Designer, Builder, Producer, Executive and Enterprise. Plans have limited storage, ranging from 15GB with Spark to 800GB with Enterprise. Plans also differ in the number of websites they can host, ranging from one with Spark and 250 with Enterprise. Each plan comes with unlimited business email accounts.
Security features
Every Nexcess plan includes security features like an SSL certificate, automatic daily backups and iThemes Security Pro, which is an $80 annual value.
Uptime
Nexcess has an uptime guarantee of 99.99%. That means customers should expect to experience an average of less than an hour of downtime per year — far less than the average downtime.
Customer support
Customers can access customer support 24/7 by phone, chat and email. You can also submit a ticket for more support. The 24/7 telephone lines have numbers for the US, Australia and the UK.
Other information
Each plan also comes with staging sites so you can preview changes to your site before they go live. Nexcess also tests WordPress plugins for you. They make a copy of your site and test the plugin so you don’t have to worry if something will work on your site or not.
Unlike other web hosting services, monthly promotional prices for Nexcess are only good for three months before your price jumps. Most other services offer longer promotional periods. Annual plans don’t offer promo prices, but they’re still cheaper than a full year of monthly prices — even with the promotional discount.
Prices start at $14.70 a month.
- WordPress preinstalled
- 24/7 site security monitoring
Cons:
- Add-ons can cost more than hosting
- Add-ons are not available to all
Tiered hosting options
AccuWeb Hosting offers three tiered WordPress hosting plans called WordPress Starter, WordPress Pro and WordPress Business. Each plan offers unlimited WordPress websites, but other resources — like storage and bandwidth — are limited.
Security features
Each plan includes an SSL certificate, malware protection and DDoS protection and mitigation tools.
Uptime
AccuWeb Hosting guarantees an impressive 99.99% uptime. That means you should expect less than an hour of downtime per year, compared to nine hours for companies that only offer 99.9% uptime.
Customer support
WordPress customer support is available 24/7 by phone, chat and ticket submission. AccuWeb Hosting also says its ticket submission system has a response time of under 90 minutes. Most other services that have ticket submission don’t give a timeframe for response so AccuWeb Hosting giving a 90-minute or less response seems good.
Other information
WordPress comes preinstalled with each plan, making it easy to start working on your site as soon as you purchase a plan. Each AccuWeb Hosting plan also offers 24/7 site security monitoring, so if your site goes down while you’re not looking, someone should already be aware and working to fix it.
After purchasing a plan, you can purchase 10GB of additional disk space for $5 a month. You can also purchase 100GB of additional bandwidth for $20 a month, but only if you are hosting your site out of the Denver data center. If you purchase both of these add-ons, the total can be more than the cost of the WordPress Starter plan after renewal.
Plans start at $4 a month.
Optional add-ons from AccuWeb Hosting can cost more than hosting in some cases.
WordPress hosting providers compared
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| SiteGround | InMotion Hosting | IONOS | A2 Hosting | HostGator | HostPapa | GoDaddy Web Hosting | Nexcess | AccuWeb Hosting | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price for WordPress hosting, per month | $3 | $3 | $0.50 | $12 | $6 | $4 | $9 | $14.70 | $4 |
| Uptime promise | 99.99% | 99.99% | 99.99% | 99.9% | 99.9% | 99.9% | 99.9% | 100% | 99.99% |
| 24/7 customer service | Phone, live chat and ticket submission | Phone, live chat, email and ticket submission | Phone and live chat | Phone, live chat and email | Phone, live chat and email | Phone, live chat and email | Phone and live chat | Phone, live chat, email and ticket submission | Phone, live chat and ticket submission |
| Money-back guarantee | 30 days | 90 days for contracts longer than 6 months; 30 days for month-to-month contracts or dedicated hosting plans | 30 days | 30 days | 45 days | 30 days | 30 days for annual plans; 48 hours for monthly plans | 30 days | 30 days |
GreenGeeks
Mochahost
DreamHost
Hostinger
WebHostingPad
Bluehost
Hostwinds
Web Hosting Hub
iPage
These services either don’t offer tiered plans, lack basic security features and customer support options, or have an entry price at least 10 times higher than some other services. We don’t think they’re as robust as our other picks, but they could be right for you and your needs.
Kinsta: Offers 10 tiered WordPress hosting options, SSL certificate and hack and malware removal included, has a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and customer support is available 24/7 by phone or chat. Prices start at $30 a month.
WP Engine Web Hosting: Three tiered WordPress hosting options, SSL certificate and threat blocking security included, 99.9% uptime guaranteed with higher tier plans, as well as 24/7 phone and chat support available with higher tier plans. Prices start at $20 a month.
Pantheon: Three tiered WordPress hosting options, automated backups and DDoS protections included, 99.9% uptime guarantee and customer support available 24/7 by phone or email. Prices start at $41 a month.
NameCheap: Three tiered WordPress hosting options, SSL and security features included with higher prices plans, 99.9% uptime and customer support available 24/7 by chat or ticket submission. Prices start at $2.08 a month, billed at $24.88 a year.
Glowhost: Shared, VPS and dedicated WordPress hosting plans are available, but there are no tiered options within each plan, security features are available separately, plans have a 99.95% uptime guarantee and customer support is available 24/7 by phone, chat or ticket submission. Prices start at $10 a month.
For more on web hosting, check out CNET’s best web hosting services, best VPS hosting services and best website builders.
