Choosing a WordPress host for your new project is intimidating. Cheap shared hosting is slowly becoming a thing of the past, and many new managed WordPress hostings have entered the scene.

In this post, we’ve rounded up six best WordPress hosts to use for your next website, blog or online store.

6 Best WordPress Hostings to Use for Your Next Project

1. Bluehost

Bluehost - WP Pro HostingSource: Bluehost

Bluehost is, without a doubt, WordPress’ most prolific web host. Its servers power over 2 million websites with six hosting plans, three of which are dedicated to WordPress. Its servers support applications like Joomla and Drupal as well.

Its cheapest hosting plans for WordPress are nearly identical to its shared hosting plans, only this set is optimized for the content management system.

WordPress is installed automatically, and Bluehost will even keep it updated for you. However, it should be noted that it does not offer bug fixes in the event of an automatic update breaking your site. Fortunately, auto updates can be disabled with ease from the control panel.

Every plan comes with one free domain for a year and a free SSL certificate. Unmetered SSD storage and unlimited subdomains are available as well.

Bluehost’s advanced set of hosting plans for WordPress are available as part of a fully-managed hosting service it calls “WP Pro.” While they’re more expensive than the shared hosting plans, their servers are much more powerful. The plans themselves also offer more tools and services.

Chief among them are daily backups and site restorations, malware detection and removal, and included domain privacy and protection. The ever-popular Jetpack WordPress plugin is also installed automatically. The version you receive (Basic, Premium or Pro) is dependent on the WP Pro plan you choose.

Staging environments, unlimited web storage and unmetered traffic are included as well. Plus, certain plans come with priority support from agents knowledgeable in WordPress.

Pricing

Bluehost’s shared hosting plans start at $71.40 for one year. WP Pro starts at $83.85 for three months.

Discounts are available when you pay for more hosting time upfront, typically two or three years. Monthly plans, however, are not available despite Bluehost using them to market its prices.

Try Bluehost

2. Kinsta

Kinsta HomepageSource: Kinsta

Kinsta is a managed WordPress host whose hosting infrastructure is powered by Google Cloud Platform. It uses some of the most sophisticated tools in server technology, including Nginx, MariaDB and LXD containers. It’s even quick to adopt new versions of PHP.

Because Kinsta doesn’t force updates for major releases and WordPress updates minor security releases automatically, the hosting doesn’t offer automatic updates as part of its service. You’re encouraged to use the staging environments that come with every plan to test updates instead.

As a managed hosting, Kinsta also handles key security aspects for you. This includes daily backups for live and staged sites, instant site restoration at the click of a button, uptime monitoring, and fixes for hacks.

The MyKinsta dashboard is also incredibly easy to use. Creating a new site with WordPress preinstalled is as easy as can be. Plus, all plans come with a free site migration.

The dashboard includes analytics for the traffic your site receives, among other things. You can also choose a data center closest to the region the majority of your customers live.

The only major drawback of Kinsta is its list of banned plugins, especially if you’re used to managing your site on your own or you feel loyal to a particular product. Because Kinsta manages most aspects of your site, it doesn’t allow you to install plugins that may interfere with those aspects.

These include most caching plugins, many backup plugins and, most notably, security plugins. Incremental backup plugins, on the other hand, are allowed as they don’t hog precious resources.

Pricing

Kinsta offers monthly plans with rates that start at $30/month.

Try Kinsta

We also published a detailed review about Kinsta, if you want to learn more: Kinsta Hosting Review: Managed Cloud Hosting for WordPress

3. Raidboxes

Raidboxes HomepageSource: Raidboxes

Raidboxes is a managed WordPress host with server locations in Germany, making it a fantastic option for businesses serving a primarily European customer base.

Raidboxes offers multiple pillars in its managed hosting platform. WordPress core updates are available as are backups and malware detection and removal. However, certain features, such as a web access firewall, are not available, so you’ll still need to rely on third-party tools for them. The types of services available to you are also dependent on the plan you choose.

Raidboxes even makes it easy for you to build and manage WordPress sites in general. WordPress is installed for you automatically when you create a new site. You can even clone or stage a website with relative ease and install an SSL certificate with the simple click of a button.

As for server quality, this host uses Nginx-based servers, SSD storage, the most recent PHP versions and the latest in server technology. Server-side Nginx caching is included as well as a more sophisticated version of PHP caching.

Pricing

Pricing for Raidboxes’ primary hosting plans starts at €15/month. Its fully-managed plan costs €30/month, and it’s the only plan that includes malware removal at no additional cost.

This plan also comes with a 14-day free trial while most only receive four.

Try Raidboxes

4. Flywheel

Flywheel HomepageSource: Flywheel

Flywheel is another managed WordPress host most comparable to Kinsta. It’s also powered by Google Cloud Platform, and because it’s designed for creatives with little technical knowledge or time, its UI is easy to navigate and makes it easy for you to control the more intricate details of your site.

With that said, Flywheel actually manages the most important aspects of your site for you. These include caching, security, WordPress core updates and backups. Malware removal and a CDN are even offered as courtesy services.

Flywheel is an especially useful hosting for designers who manage client sites or don’t want to waste too much time on site maintenance. Tools for such users include staging, site cloning and Blueprints, the latter of which allows you to package the themes and plugins you use as presets for new sites.

Flywheel is also behind Local, a development application that allows you to develop WordPress sites locally. You can even push Local sites and site changes live when you connect the tool to Flywheel or its parent company WP Engine.

Pricing

Flywheel’s hosting plans start at a modest $15/month or $150/year for up to 5,000 monthly visitors and 5GB of storage.

Try Flywheel

5. WP Engine

WP Engine HomepageSource: WP Engine

WP Engine is another managed WordPress host built on a cloud infrastructure. They manage most aspects of your site for you, including installation, caching, backups and WordPress core updates. Site staging is also available as is a direct integration with the aforementioned Local application due to their acquisition of Flywheel in 2019.

Multiple data centers are available to choose from, and you’ll have access to free SSL certificates, a CDN and 35+ StudioPress themes with the Genesis framework included.

Unfortunately, security is something WP Engine could do better with, especially given the steep prices they charge. While their servers are secure and protected by a firewall, they don’t offer automatic malware scanning and removal.

If you believe your site has been infected with malware, you can ask WP Engine’s support team to perform a deep scan and removal. However, if you have no “specific indication” that your site has been infected, you’ll be directed to use security solutions like Sucuri and Wordfence instead.

Pricing

WP Engine’s plans start at $30/month for up to 25,000 monthly visitors and $115/month for up to 100,000.

Try WP Engine

6. SiteGround

SiteGround HomepageSource: SiteGround

SiteGround is a multiplatform and multi-server type host with a primary focus on WordPress. Their WordPress plans were traditionally built on a shared hosting infrastructure, but they’ve since adopted managed hosting built with Google Cloud Platform.

Included with every plan is a free installation of WordPress, daily backups and WordPress core updates. Malware scanning and removal are not included, but your site will be protected by a server-level firewall with up-to-date patches for the latest security threats. Free SSL certificates are also included.

A free CDN is also available as is SiteGround’s proprietary caching plugin, though the latter is not included in the cheapest plan.

The higher-tiered plans also come with site staging and developer toolkits.

Pricing

You can get started with SiteGround’s WordPress hosting plans with a $19.99 monthly subscription or by paying a base fee of $83.88 for your first annual plan. This first year is offered at a discount. Subsequent years cost $179.88.

Two and three-year subscriptions are also available at discounted prices.

Try SiteGround

Final Thoughts

All of these hosts have plans that cater to WordPress, but they each offer something different. Aside from Bluehost, who offer cheap shared hosting plans, they all have similar price structures.

The outliers here include Flywheel and WP Engine who offer cheap starting rates only to hike prices up to over $100/month once your site starts receiving over 25,000 visits per month.

Once you settle on a price, you can narrow your options down by considering two things: the types of managed services you need and performance. Some of these hostings don’t include malware scanning and removal or bug fixes. If you don’t want to monitor this on your own or worry about hiring a third-party service, you’re better off choosing hosts like Bluehost (WP Pro plans), Kinsta, Raidboxes and Flywheel who handle it for you.

Browse the web for speed results and uptime reports for each hosting to get a sense of its performance in the real world. You can also check out our own reviews.

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