I wrote this simple guide knowing that hosting your WordPress site is an important decision and choosing the wrong hosting company can harm your site in many different ways.
In what ways? Well, website speed is a crucial element these days when it comes to how Google sees your website. WordPress site is slow to load? very bad for your ranking. Not to mention your actual visitors who will simply leave your site if it’s too slow to load. There are simply lots of other sites they can spend their valuable time at.
Finding the cheapest and yet most reliable shared hosting service for your WordPress site can be an endless loop as there are lots and lots of hosting companies out there these days, offering great prices and many different offers.
In this article, we will overview what features to look into a blog hosting. Then, we will compare seven of our favorite WordPress web hosts and help you choose the best blog for your blog. Let’s start working!
What is shared hosting?
Shared hosting is exactly what it sounds like, your website will share one server with many other websites.
All the software on your hosting panel will come pre-installed from the hosting provider.
On the other hand – everything is being done for you so you can focus your mind on your website and less on technical aspects.
To help you out I am going to list out the best and most affordable WordPress hosting solutions out there.
What to look for in shared hosting?
What you should be looking for in WordPress hosting for your blog?
| Pre-installed WordPress | Some web hosting providers can get you started by setting up WordPress for you. |
| Advanced Support | If you happen to find any problems with the server, you want to get professional help. Companies such as Kinsta and GoDaddy have employees that are WordPress core contributors so they really know their stuff. |
| Premium Themes & Plugins | Look for options that can provide you with bundled themes and plugins, as they can save you a lot of money and setup time. |
| CDN | CDN loads your site into the cloud and distributes its files to users via the nearest server. In this way, you can shorten the overall load time and better handle heavy traffic. |
| Free Domain Name | This is just a bonus! Some providers offer a free domain name for the first year when purchasing hosting. |
Top WordPress Hosting Companies
Here are the top 7 WordPress hosting providers compared:
| host | WP engine | AltusHost | SiteGround | A2 | Hostinger | BlueHost | Kinsta |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The plan starts at (monthly) | $30 | $6.30 | $3.95 | $ 2.96 | $ 0.80 | $2.95 | $30 |
| Provide monthly payment | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| A minimum commitment to get a promotional price | 1 month | 12 months | 12 months | 24 months | 48 months | 36 months | 1 month |
| Provide simplified blog settings | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Advanced WordPress features | ✅ | ❌ | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Recommended for | Experienced user | Beginners and experienced users | Beginners and experienced users | beginner | beginner | Beginners and experienced users | Experienced user |
WP Engine
WP Engine is one of the few hosting providers that focuses just on WordPress hosting. It is known for providing high performance, and most of its plans are for WordPress developers or agencies.
The downside is that the price is a bit high. The starter plan for WP Engine costs $3, which is much higher than most other blog hosts. In addition, you can only access the best features of WP Engine through its higher levels.
Key Features:
- WordPress comes pre-installed
- More than 40 advanced themes can be accessed from StudioPresss
- Access to staging, production and development environments
- Integrated CDN
- Automated SSL
- Regular backups
Cost and price plan (monthly):
- Startup ($3): 1 website / 10 GB storage space / 50 GB bandwidth
- Growth ($115): 5 websites / 20 GB storage space / 200 GB bandwidth
- Scale ($290): 15 websites / 30 GB storage space / 400 GB bandwidth
- Custom: Depends on the specific situation
✔️ advantage:
- A very friendly developer virtual host that can use powerful functions
- Ranked second in our ranking of fastest WordPress web hosts
- Ten different server locations, distributed in the United States, Europe and Asia
❌ disadvantage:
- Requires development experience to take full advantage of all functions
- Many features (such as multi-site support and automatic plug-in updates) are marked as add-ons
- Startup costs for small websites are very high
As long as you have a budget, WP Engine is a reliable choice for any blog. The startup plan only supports a single website, which may be too lethal for a small blog. Even so, if you have website development experience, you know that you will pay for a range of features.
AltusHost
I’m actively using (and paying for) this service. There’s no more honest recommendation than that.
Key Features:
- WP Toolkit and Softaculous programs
- Free SSL
Cost and price plan (monthly):
- BIZ20 ($6.30): 2 website / 20 GB of storage space / up to 25,000 visits per month
- BIZ50 ($10.75): Unlimited website / 50 GB storage space / up to 50,000 visits per month
- BIZ100 ($18.00): Unlimited websites / 100 GB storage space / up to 100,000 visits per month
Free SSL is included with all Web Hosting packages!
✔️ advantage:
- More tolerant copyright policy.
- Great customer support, great uptime.
- Helpful staff and really friendly management.
❌ disadvantage:
- Limited reach
- Not optimized for WordPress only
- Problems with payment gateways
SiteGround
SiteGround offers several different types of plans, including regular shared and cloud hosting, WooCommerce specific options, and managed WordPress hosting. This provides flexibility for flexibility that other hosts may not be able to achieve.
Its managed WordPress plans are a bit weird because of their very low cost. However, this will never hinder a great experience-there are many advanced features you can use, which makes SiteGround a very attractive proposition for bloggers.
Key Features:
- WordPress pre-installed
- Bundled themes collection and customizable WordPress installation
- Automatic core and plugin updates
- Integrated CDN
- Free SSL certificate
- Automatic backup
Cost and price plan (monthly):
- Startup ($3.95): 1 website / 10 GB of storage space / up to 10,000 visits per month
- GrowBig ($5.95): Unlimited website / 20 GB storage space / up to 25,000 visits per month
- GoGeek ($5.95): Unlimited websites / 30 GB storage space / up to 100,000 visits per month
All of the above plans include off-the-shelf CDN integration.
✔️ advantage:
- According to our test, the fastest WordPress web hosting
- Very budget friendly option
- You can basically access hosted WordPress features at a low price
- Server locations in the U.S., U.K., Netherlands and Singapore
❌ disadvantage:
- No monthly payment option
A2 Hosting
A2 Hosting offers almost all types of hosting plans you need to use as a website owner. They provide WooCommerce plans, virtual private servers (VPS) and more features.
When it comes to blog hosting, you will find multiple low-cost WordPress specific plans. This is a web hosting service provider that is very suitable for beginners, and has excellent performance, which is a remarkable aspect that cannot be ignored.
Key Features:
- Bundled theme collection
- Free SSL certificate
- Unlimited bandwidth
- Access to internal WordPress optimization plugins
Cost and price plan (monthly):
- Lite ($2.96): 1 website/unlimited storage/unlimited bandwidth
- Swift ($3.70): Unlimited website/Unlimited storage/Unlimited bandwidth
- Turbo ($7.03): Unlimited websites/unlimited storage/unlimited bandwidth (this plan also gives you access to what they call “Turbo” speeds)
✔️ advantage:
- One of the cheapest web hosts in the field
- They provide plans for most other popular blogging platforms, including Ghost, b2evolution, Jekyll, etc.
- Server locations in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France and Australia
❌ disadvantage:
- Performance is far not as good as the start-up plan advertised
- The monthly payment option is much more expensive
Hostinger
Today, low-cost hosting is nothing new. However, Hostinger plays budget hosting games on a different level from most other providers.
The offered WordPress hosting plan starts at $0.80 per month. As you can imagine, this may be the cheapest host on the market, and you will be moved by the amount of capture. Putting this aside for now, Hostinger usually sells its plans to users with little hosting experience and small blogs.
Key Features:
- 100 GB bandwidth
- WordPress optimized settings to speed up loading time
Cost and price plan (monthly):
- Single WordPress hosting ($0.80): 1 website / 10 GB storage space / 100 GB bandwidth
- Premium WordPress hosting ($2.15): 100 websites / 20 GB storage space / unlimited bandwidth / free domain
- Commercial WordPress hosting ($3.45): 100 websites / 30 GB storage space / unlimited bandwidth / one free domain
✔️ advantage:
- The lowest price required for blog hosting
- Servers in the US, Asia and Europe
❌ disadvantage:
- At this price, you don’t have more features than your competitors
- In order to get the best price, you must lock in long-term contract
Considering the price you have to pay, Hostinger’s performance is surprisingly excellent. It is not on the same layer as WP Engine or SiteGround, but has fought excellently throughout the plan.
BlueHost
Without mentioning Bluehost, there is no budget web hosting option. They offer a wide range of hosting plans, including some that are specifically targeted at WordPress users.
WordPress hosting plans start at $2.95 per month, and for the price, this experience is suitable for beginners. Therefore, Bluehost will set up WordPress for you and provide an excellent set of advanced features.
Key Features:
- Bundled collection of WordPress themes (hundreds)
- Free SSL certificate
- Automatic WordPress updates
- Access staging environment
Cost and price plan (monthly):
- Basic ($2.95): 1 website / 50 GB storage space / unlimited bandwidth
- Plus ($5.45): unlimited websites/unlimited storage space/unlimited bandwidth/free domains
- Choice Plus ($5.45): Unlimited website/Unlimited storage space/Unlimited bandwidth/Free domain
All Bluehost’s WordPress plans include free domain registration.
✔️ advantage:
- Great web hosting for beginners
- Ranked third in the ranking of fastest WordPress web hosts
- Access staging function
❌ disadvantage:
- As usual, the best price can only be obtained by signing a long-term contract
If you want cheap blog hosting to provide excellent performance and provide advanced features, Bluehost is an excellent choice. Whether you are new to WordPress or have experience using the platform, this is ideal for small and medium-sized blogs.
Kinsta
So far, we have discussed a lot of budget blog site hosts, so let’s summarize it with a few different things. Kinsta is a managed WordPress platform that offers a wide range of plans and includes many advanced features.
Right away, we can tell you Kinsta is not cheap. The service is geared towards enterprises, agents and developers-the price is matched. To give you a good idea, their starter plan costs $30 a month, and the price rises sharply.
Key Features:
- Daily backup
- Free malware removal
- Access staging function
- Integrated CDN
- Free SSL certificate
- Starter plan supports approximately 20,000 visits per month
Cost and price plan (monthly):
- Getting started ($30): 1 website / 10 GB of storage space / up to 20,000 visits
- Professional Edition ($60): 2 websites / 20 GB storage space / up to 40,000 visits
- Business 1 ($100): 5 websites / 30 GB of storage space / up to 250,000 visits
Kinsta offers many plans for corporate websites, up to $1,500 per month, and all of the above plans also include free CDN integration.
✔️ advantage:
- Access to the staged website and SSH access and other functions
- Highly scalable, offering a large number of plans
- You can choose from 20 server locations
❌ disadvantage:
- Not on the cheap side of hosting providers
From a cost point of view, Kinsta is an exciting web host. As a provider, this is too much for a small blog. However, once your blog starts to expand, you will thank them for their extensive plan. In addition, they offer monthly payments, which is good news considering your initial expenses.
Conclusion
Whether your blog is a hobby or the first step in a booming business, you need to carefully consider your choice of web hosting service provider. If all goes well, you will use the same provider in the next few years.
The good news is that there are many great web hosting providers that provide top-notch services for blogs at reasonable prices. Let’s take a look at some of our top picks:
| Best overall WP hosting | Siteground | the best all-round solution that provides the best performance of the host we tested, and the price is low. |
| Cheapest hosting provider | Hostinger | excellent value for money, if you are looking for a low-cost option, Hostinger is unbeatable |
| Best for high-traffic sites | Kinsta | both WP Engine and Kinsta can be prepared for high-traffic, but the price is higher. |
Do you have questions about what we think is the best blog hosting service provider? Let us know in the comments section below!
